The basic game coin rewards needn't be mentioned. The MVP's additional rewards were as follows:
[Reward 1: Ghost Captain's Great Secret Treasure]
[Description: Choose this reward and you will randomly obtain a treasure from the ghost captain's collection]
[Note: Take the gamble—turn a bicycle into a motorcycle. A small goal isn't just a dream]
[Reward 2: 100-to-1 Ghost Ship Model]
[Note: What does it mean to be a model hobbyist?]
[Reward 3: Super Large Portion of Octopus Legs]
[Description: After consumption, your permanent attributes will increase]
[Note: 100% original flavor, contains no additives, chicken flavor, crunchy]
[Reward 4: Crew Summoning Order]
[Description: You can randomly summon one to several ghost crewmates to fight for you]
[Reward 5: My Captain, My Ship]
[Description: After choosing, you will obtain one of Davy Jones's dark magic spells]
"..."
Natsuki quickly finished browsing and sighed lightly.
"Mm? What's wrong?"
Hearing the sigh, Kitagawa Marin looked up. Her cheeks puffed in and out—an octopus leg was still visible at the corner of her mouth.
Natsuki briefly explained the five options: "As expected, I want them all."
"Amamiya-kun, don't be too greedy." Kitagawa Marin's voice was muffled. "At times like this, just choose the first reward that moves your heart."
"Don't talk when your mouth is full of food."
"Oh."
"..."
After pondering for a moment, Natsuki quickly made his choice.
"Of course I'm choosing the dark magic."
So far, many players didn't even have a single skill—clearly skills were quite rare. Powerful skills were like SSRs in games—a chance encounter you couldn't force.
Natsuki currently only had three skills.
One was "Lying Down Makes You Stronger."
One was the "Evil Spirit Repelling" aura.
And there was the evil-sweeping duo combination skill that could only be used together with Chika Fujiwara. He didn't have a single real combat skill.
As for dark magic—it sounded very ominous...
So what if it's ominous?
If he had the chance, Natsuki indicated he could even be a Demon King.
Natsuki's thinking was actually similar to Kaguya's. Why choose the lawful good alignment when being an evil capitalist was so much better?!
After making his choice, new content quickly appeared before Natsuki's eyes.
[You have obtained skill: Touch of Darkness]
[Type: Dark Magic]
[Description: You can extract life and base attributes from the living, strengthening yourself for a short time]
[Note: Sacrifice teammates, boundless magic power!]
The corner of Natsuki's eye twitched lightly.
Very good.
Worthy of being dark magic—right from the start it's "sacrifice teammates, boundless magic power."
The problem is, why must you specifically limit it to living people?
Should evil spirits and monsters be discriminated against?!
Also, the extracted attributes can only strengthen yourself for a short time—why can't it be permanent strengthening?
Natsuki let out a quiet breath and quickly calmed down.
The die is cast. There's no use saying more.
Skills don't distinguish between evil and justice... Okay, it was actually somewhat evil, but it mainly depended on the person.
It was just an extraction ability. It didn't say the extracted person would die.
The specifics would only be known after verification.
"I'm done eating."
Kitagawa Marin put down her bento box and looked at the antique silver coin on the table. She picked it up curiously: "This coin seems like anyone can use it. Let me test out the effect, okay?"
Natsuki nodded lightly and continued eating his bento. Suddenly his chopsticks paused. His gaze landed on the mermaid tear.
According to this thing's description, it was quite a good enhancement item—it could not only enhance items but also enhance skills... What about using it to enhance the dark magic?
"Phew..."
Kitagawa Marin blew lightly on the silver coin, then flicked it with her finger, sending it spinning into the air.
Clap.
The blonde girl clapped her hands together and caught the coin.
"Let me see..." Kitagawa Marin opened her hands and looked at the silver coin. "It's tails. The prompt says I've gained the 'Plagued by Bad Luck' debuff. Duration is half an hour."
Kitagawa Marin looked left and right, then stood up to move her body around: "I don't feel anything at all."
Natsuki extended his hand:
"Let me try."
"Here, for you."
Natsuki took the silver coin, planning to toss it to get heads—it could temporarily increase his luck attribute. Then he'd use the mermaid tear to enhance the dark magic he'd just learned... In short, he wanted to maximize the enhancement success rate as much as possible.
And then...
[Charging. Please toss fate again after one hour]
Looks like it can't be used consecutively.
Natsuki played with the silver coin a few times and casually put it away. Suddenly a possibility occurred to him. He couldn't help but look at Kitagawa Marin beside him.
"What's wrong?"
Kitagawa Marin tilted her head and looked over.
"Nothing." Natsuki withdrew his gaze. "It's already 10 PM. You can pretty much go take your bath."
Though he'd witnessed supernatural phenomena, Natsuki still firmly believed the law of conservation of mass-energy was one of the universe's cornerstones.
Energy couldn't be created from nothing, nor could it vanish into nothing.
Presumably luck was the same.
So could the truth of this silver coin be that it absorbed luck from others, stored it up, then released it in concentrated form?
"I really should take a bath—I've sweated so much." Kitagawa Marin sniffed her arm. "If I don't bathe, I'll start smelling. Amamiya-kun, I'm going to take my bath first."
The blonde girl cleaned up the bento boxes, then pattered off toward the bathroom.
Natsuki poured himself a cup of tea. He drank tea in the living room while watching TV when his fingers suddenly trembled.
No need to guess—it was definitely the pink-haired airhead.
Natsuki picked up his phone and immediately saw a message from Chika Fujiwara.
"Amamiya-kun, want a surprise?"
"Thanks, I don't."
"It's a surprise delivered to your door."
"I refuse."
After chatting for a bit, Chika Fujiwara asked curiously: "Oh right, two people just joined the player mutual aid group. Does Amamiya-kun know about it?"
"I know."
Natsuki took a sip of tea and briefly explained the earlier game.
Chika Fujiwara: "Eh eh eh—if only I'd been with Amamiya-kun. Our combination skill is invincible."
Can't really say invincible, but if the pink-haired airhead had been by his side, the hide and seek game truly would have had zero difficulty.
Thud.
The sound of a heavy object falling suddenly came from the bathroom, followed immediately by a girl's whimpering cry.
"Ow ow ow ow ow..."
Hearing this, Natsuki put down his phone, stood up, and walked to the bathroom door: "Kitagawa?"
"I just stepped on soap and accidentally fell."
"Then it's fine."
Natsuki turned to leave.
And then...
Another muffled thud sounded from the bathroom.
Natsuki stopped speechlessly: "...You fell again?"
"How was I supposed to know the soap was right by my feet?!" Kitagawa Marin made a pitiful whimper like a puppy. "My foot hurts so much—I can't get up."
"..."
To actually fall twice in a row—you really are a great genius!
Wait.
Natsuki reacted.
"Has the 'Plagued by Bad Luck' debuff taken effect?"