The afterglow of intimacy was always fleeting.
The door to the infirmary swung open.
Qin Yu stepped out, fastening his belt with a refreshed and invigorated air.
Inside, Yao Xue had already fallen asleep from exhaustion. Her usually cool and aloof face still bore a faint blush, like a peach blossom blooming on an iceberg.
"Hah—"
Qin Yu lit a fresh cigarette, taking a deep drag. The pungent smoke swirled in his lungs, clearing away the last lingering traces of lingering thoughts.
His mind grew calm once more.
His gaze sharpened again.
Ignoring the robots still busily working on the deck, he headed straight for the control room.
Li Ruobing was slumped in a chair, her left arm in a sling, while her right hand tapped away on the spiderweb-cracked screen in front of her.
Seeing Qin Yu enter, she didn't get up, merely pushing the tablet toward him.
"Take a look. Your 'President.'"
"It's a mess."
Qin Yu glanced over it.
The holographic projection of the ship's hull was covered in glaring red warnings.
Keel distortion: 15%.
Lower armor plating stripped: 30%.
The engine room was highlighted in deep crimson, clearly on the verge of total failure.
"The recoil from that last shot was too much," Li Ruobing said, her words slightly slurred as she sucked on a lollipop to ease the pain in her arm. "Add the gravity crush from that monster at the end, and the only reason this ship didn't fall apart is because you overbuilt it in the first place."
"But if it happens again…"
Li Ruobing looked up at Qin Yu, her expression serious.
"The ship will shatter."
"And we can't reach it."
That hit a sore spot.
Qin Yu flicked the ash from his cigarette, gazing out at the dark sea beyond the window.
Right.
They couldn't reach it.
That last shot had been powerful, but it had only worked because they'd caught the enemy by surprise.
If that "Abyssal Lord" simply flew higher, hiding in the clouds to drop rocks or fire those beams…
The "President" would be nothing but a sitting duck on the sea.
Being forced to take hits wasn't Qin Yu's style.
"A broken ship can be fixed," Qin Yu said, pulling over a chair and propping his feet up on the cracked console. "If we can't reach it, then we find a way to go up."
Li Ruobing rolled her eyes.
"Go up? How?"
"Give the ship wings? Or maybe build a floating fortress like Qi Chun's?"
"Our current tech tree doesn't go that far. Unless you can fly."
Qin Yu smiled.
A mysterious smile.
"The tech tree might not reach it for others."
"But for me, there's no skill I can't unlock."
He silently called out in his mind.
"System."
Over the past three days, drifting at sea, he'd done nothing but hunt monsters and expand. The special mechanism of the "Daily Lottery System" had long since cooled down.
[Ding! Host currently possesses one "Targeted Draw" privilege!]
[Use it?]
Qin Yu's eyes narrowed.
"Use it!"
"Lock category: Vehicle/Enhancement/Core Components."
"Keywords: Sky, Gravity, Thruster!"
Since that big guy flew using a gravity field…
Then I'll draw something even more ruthless than yours!
This isn't just for repairing the ship.
It's so that the next time we meet, I can drag that flying beast down from the sky!
[Ding! Targeted extraction activated!]
[Searching high-dimensional database...]
[Deducting all accumulated luck points from the host...]
The virtual roulette wheel before Qin Yu's eyes began spinning wildly.
This time, there were no random daily necessities on the wheel.
Only mechanical parts gleaming with metallic luster.
Purple, gold, and even a few flashes of dark red light flickered past.
"Stop!"
Qin Yu shouted inwardly.
The pointer gradually slowed down.
Finally, it came to a dead stop on a black icon emitting a dim glow.
The icon looked like a pulsating mechanical heart.
Encircled by several intricate magnetic field lines.
[Ding! Congratulations, host!]
[Luck explosion! Critical reward triggered!]
[Obtained unique special item: Heavy Core Anti-Gravity Pulse Keel (S-Class · Growable)]
[Item description: This is the spine of a starship. Though only in its initial form, it contains the technological essence to break free from planetary gravitational shackles.]
[Trait 1: Field Neutralization. Once equipped, the vehicle will become immune to all gravity suppression below A-Class and significantly reduce the effects of S-Class gravity.]
[Trait 2: Hover Mode. Consumes high-energy fuel to allow the vehicle to lift off the water surface and achieve low-altitude hovering (current altitude limit: 50 meters).]
[Trait 3: Devour and Reforge. Can devour high-strength biological skeletons and metal ores for self-repair and evolution.]
[Note: To achieve high-altitude flight, evolution to the SSS-grade "Celestial Vault Form" is required.]
Looking at the panel, Qin Yu clenched his fist tightly.
This is it!
Even though it can only hover fifty meters off the ground for now.
It's like replacing a bicycle with a hovercraft—the nature has completely changed!
Most importantly, that "Devour and Reforge."
Qin Yu remembered the leftover spoils from the "Kiss of Death" earlier.
There were still plenty of those monster's shell fragments at the bottom of the sea that hadn't been retrieved!
"Ruo Bing."
Qin Yu stood up abruptly, the exhaustion in his eyes completely gone.
"Send all the engineering robots down."
"Retrieve all those black shells in the sea, along with those severed tentacles!"
Li Ruobing was taken aback.
"Why retrieve those? They're just corpses, inedible and corrosive."
"Just do it."
Qin Yu crushed the cigarette butt in his hand, his lips curling into a chilling grin.
"That's the material for repairing the ship."
"I'm going to turn our 'President' into a steel monster that devours people!"
...
Two hours later.
The deck was piled high with black shell fragments like small mountains.
These parts, once belonging to the "Abyssal Lord," still emitted an unsettling chill even after being separated from the main body.
Their hardness was even more astonishing.
Li Ruobing tried cutting one with a laser cutter, but it didn't even leave a scratch.
"How do we use this stuff?"
"Even if we wanted to weld it onto the ship, we can't melt it."
Li Ruobing looked at Qin Yu as if he were insane.
Qin Yu didn't respond.
Standing before the pile of materials, he extracted the "Heavy Core Anti-Gravity Pulse Keel" from his system space.
It was a ten-meter-long black metal spine.
The surface was densely covered with intricate patterns, its core rhythmically pulsating, emitting a low-frequency "humming" vibration.
"Go."
Qin Yu pressed his hand onto the old deck.
"Merge!"
[Ding! Core component detected!]
[Large quantities of high-grade biological materials detected!]
["President" modification procedure initiated!]
"Rumble—"
The entire ship suddenly shook violently.
Under Li Ruobing's horrified gaze.
The black metal spine plunged directly into the center of the hull.
Immediately after.
The pile of originally indestructible "Abyssal Lord" carapace melted like wax encountering high heat, instantly turning into black liquid.
This liquid did not flow everywhere.
Instead, as if alive, it frantically seeped into the ship's interior through the gaps in the deck.
"Crack! Crack!"
The sound of wood splintering rang out densely.
The original wooden deck and alloy steel plates were all devoured and restructured at this moment.
The entire "President" was writhing!
It was growing!
The originally somewhat bloated hull began to elongate, its lines becoming more streamlined and menacing.
The ram at the bow became extremely sharp, even sprouting barb-like fangs.
Black metal covered every inch of the hull, reflecting a cold, ghostly sheen under the moonlight.
The greatest change, however, was at the bottom of the ship.
The original propeller thrusters were completely discarded.
In their place were two rows of blue jet nozzles—the ejection points for the Anti-Gravity Pulse.
Ten minutes later.
The shaking stopped.
The original "President" had vanished.
In its place was an all-black, ghost-like steel warship.
It no longer floated on the water.
Instead, it hovered half a meter above the sea surface!
Steady as a mountain!