Night.
Five thousand meters deep in the ocean.
The President moved like a ghost, silently navigating the pitch-black trench.
Outside, the world remained a hellscape of slaughter and chaos.
But within the thick Titan Alloy armor, there was a brief, suffocating tranquility.
Master Bedroom.
A dim wall lamp was lit.
The air still carried the distinct scent of hormones left after intense physical exertion.
It was even somewhat scorching.
"Hah..."
Qin Yu leaned against the headboard, lighting a post-coital cigarette.
Pale gray smoke curled upwards.
On his chest, with its clearly defined muscle lines, were a few faint scratch marks.
"Trophies" left behind from the earlier intensity.
Beside him.
A faint rustling of clothing sounded.
Yao Xue sat on the edge of the bed.
Her back was to Qin Yu.
Her usually immaculate white lab coat was now casually discarded on the floor.
She was bending over.
Slowly pulling a brand new, cicada-wing-thin black stocking up her straight, slender legs.
The movement was graceful.
Yet it exuded an indescribable, deadly allure.
"Is this your way of decompressing?"
Yao Xue didn't turn her head, her voice still carrying a trace of lingering languor and huskiness.
"You just fought hundreds of thousands of mutated sea beasts, and then you could still... wear me out for nearly two hours."
"Big Brother Qin, does your stamina have no upper limit?"
Qin Yu grinned.
Tapped his cigarette ash.
"That's for outsiders."
"For my own wife, I call it... imparting everything I have."
Yao Xue's cheeks flushed slightly as she shot him a glare.
"Smooth talker."
She finished putting on the stockings, stood up, and smoothed her slightly disheveled long hair.
She resumed her usual icy beauty demeanor.
But the soft light in her eyes couldn't be hidden.
"Let's talk business."
Yao Xue walked to the bedside, plucked the cigarette from Qin Yu's mouth, and stubbed it out in the ashtray herself.
"What you said on the deck earlier, how confident are you?"
"Collect five fragments, overthrow that Executive Officer."
"Were you serious, or were you just trying to calm Ruo Bing and the others?"
Qin Yu's smile faded.
His gaze sharpened like a blade's edge.
"Do I look like I'm joking?"
Qin Yu pulled Yao Xue into his arms.
Settling her onto his lap.
"That bastard hiding behind the screen already has a knife to our throats."
"If I don't flip the table."
"We're the ones who die."
Yao Xue obediently leaned against Qin Yu's broad shoulder.
Her fingers unconsciously traced circles on his chest.
"But... it's too difficult."
"The system represents the absolute rules of this world."
"We're just players."
"Can we win?"
"Yes."
Qin Yu answered with just one word.
Firm and resolute.
"As long as the trump cards in my hand remain, as long as my system..."
Before he could finish.
A sudden anomaly occurred!
Beep—!!
It wasn't the ship's attack alarm.
But a sharp, piercing shriek that exploded directly within the depths of Qin Yu's mind!
Qin Yu grunted.
His face instantly turned deathly pale.
His pupils constricted violently.
"Yu-ge?!"
Yao Xue immediately sensed something was wrong.
She abruptly stood up, immediately drawing the Soul Dissection Knife.
Her gaze instantly turned as if facing a formidable enemy.
"What's wrong? Is it a mental attack?"
"Is there a high-level Sea beast approaching?!"
Qin Yu didn't speak.
He clenched his teeth tightly, his hands clutching his head.
Cold sweat rolled down his forehead in large beads.
It wasn't a Sea beast.
Inside his mind, a frenzied storm was raging.
The Daily Lottery System that had accompanied him from the beginning, granting him all his confidence.
Had gone mad.
Lines of ghostly blue code, visible only to Qin Yu.
Scrolled frantically before his eyes.
Cascading down like a waterfall.
[Alert!]
[Alert!]
[Detected large-scale collapse of underlying logic in the host's current region!]
[Detected intrusion of world's primordial force into the system firewall!]
[Judging...]
[Judgment result: High-concentration 'Ocean Soul Crystal Mother' energy entity detected within the host's backpack, and it has already formed a deep resonance with this system!]
[Hidden protocol triggered!]
[Ultimate evolution clause triggered!]
Qin Yu watched these wildly flickering lines of text.
His heart pounded like a drum.
Evolution?
At this critical moment?
"System! What the hell are you doing?!"
Qin Yu roared in his mind.
"I'm about to go snatch the fourth fragment, ready to battle the entire sea's BOSS!"
"And you choose now to fail me?!"
The system's emotionless electronic voice, for the first time, showed a noticeable stutter of static.
[Zzz... Due to the current version having iterated to the 'Wasteland Era'.]
[The old 'Daily Draw' mechanism can no longer match the survival intensity currently faced by the host.]
[To ensure the host's survival rate.]
[This system will undergo a second forced upgrade.]
[Upgrade direction: ??? (Will integrate part of the world's rules, reconstructing the lottery prize pool)]
[Effective immediately, sealing the 'Daily Draw' function!]
[Sealing the 'Lucky Wheel' function!]
[Sealing the 'System Shop Exchange' function!]
[Storage Space remains open.]
[Omniscient, Eye of Vanity remains open.]
After reading these prompts.
Qin Yu's expression turned extremely grim.
Sealing the lottery?
That meant the biggest variable he relied on daily for survival and turning the tide.
Was gone!
No more spontaneously appearing supplies.
No more game-changing Items.
No more various bizarre yet life-saving trump cards.
"How long will the upgrade take?!"
Qin Yu gritted his teeth, pressing the question in his mind.
[Progress calculating...]
[Current progress: 0.001%]
[Zzz... Due to the vastness of the world rules being integrated, the time required for the upgrade: Unknown.]
[Perhaps tomorrow.]
[Perhaps... the next century.]
[Wishing the host, martial fortune prosperous.]
"Beep."
A soft sound.
The system interface that had accompanied him through countless days and nights.
Completely darkened.
Turning into a gray panel with only a progress bar.
The progress bar stuck at 0.001%.
Motionless.
Qin Yu sat on the bed.
His hands clenched into fists.
Knuckles cracking audibly.
"Fuck."
He spat the word through gritted teeth.
"Yu-ge!"
Yao Xue, seeing Qin Yu's fluctuating expression, grew so anxious her eyes reddened.
"What exactly is wrong? Don't scare me!"
Qin Yu took a deep breath.
Forcing down the frenzy in his heart.
He looked up.
Meeting Yao Xue's anxious face.
He forced out a somewhat strained smile.
"It's nothing."
Five minutes later.
In the cockpit of the President.
The atmosphere was so tense it felt like water about to drip.
Qin Yu, now fully dressed, sat in the captain's seat.
Beside him.
Li Ruobing held a two-meter-long heavy alloy pipe wrench in her hand.
Under her fiery tank top, her chest heaved violently.
Qin Yu tapped the control console.
"My special ability has entered a dormant upgrade state."
"The return date is uncertain."
"Which means, from now on, we can only rely on the supplies in the warehouse and our own fists to tough it out."
Yao Qian sat in front of the radar screen.
Her face pale.
Her legs, clad in White Silk Stockings, instinctively pressed together.
"Brother-in-law…"
"Then… what about our ammunition?"
"We used up half of the high-explosive shells in that last battle."
"And as for the President's fuel, while the nuclear reactor can hold out, conventional weapon propellant is finite—every shot counts."
From the communicator hovering in mid-air.
Came the sound of Qi Chun sucking in a sharp breath.
"Bro, you're joking, right?"
"That Executive Officer in the system backend is scouring the world for our coordinates right now."
"And you get your account locked at a time like this?"
"Isn't that like stripping naked and throwing yourself into an assassin's arms?"
Qin Yu ignored Qi Chun's wails.
He stood up.
Walked to the porthole, and gazed out at the dark, deep seawater outside.
Without his trump card.
It was like exposing his back completely to this man-eating sea.
But Qin Yu.
Had never survived until now by hiding behind the system.
"What's everyone panicking about?"
Qin Yu turned around.
His gaze swept coldly and sharply across the room.
The oppressive aura of someone long accustomed to authority, forged in mountains of corpses and seas of blood, instantly enveloped the entire cockpit.
"Without cheats, are we just supposed to wait for death?"
Qin Yu pointed outside the porthole.
"Open your eyes and look!"
"What we're sitting in right now is a fully equipped SSS-Class Battleship!"
"In the cargo hold, there are five hundred units of Deep Sea Mithril!"
"We have the Earth's Core, we have the Ecological Garden!"
"More importantly…"
Qin Yu slapped the holster at his waist.
The Extinction · Void Grasp, sealed at the Pseudo-Rule Level.
Emitted a dark, deathly aura.
"I still have one bullet in my hand that can blow this entire sea to smithereens!"
Qin Yu's voice wasn't loud.
But to everyone's ears, it was like a thunderclap.
"Before, I was used to using items given by the system to solve problems."
"That was because it was convenient."
"But now the system is in seclusion."
"So we'll play a different way."
Qin Yu walked behind Yao Qian.
Placed his hands on the radar control console.
His eyes fixed intently on the coordinates marked with a flashing golden question mark on the screen.
Distance: six hundred nautical miles.
And still closing in.
"We won't hide."
"Not only will we not hide, we'll take the initiative and strike."
The corner of Qin Yu's mouth curled into a bloodthirsty arc.
"The system upgrade requires massive amounts of Rule energy."
"If I'm not mistaken."
"As long as I get my hands on the remaining two 'Ocean Soul Crystal Mothers'."
"And stuff them into the system."
"The progress bar will instantly max out!"
Yao Xue stood to the side, watching Qin Yu's nearly crazed profile.
The worry in her heart suddenly dissipated.
She knew.
That Qin Yu, who could tear open a bloody path no matter what desperate situation he faced.
Didn't need any system to prove himself.
He himself was the greatest monster on this sea.
"I support you."
Yao Xue tightened her grip on the scalpel in her hand.
"You say how we fight, and that's how we'll fight."
Li Ruobing simply hoisted the pipe wrench onto her shoulder.
She planted one foot on the metal seat, revealing a large expanse of fair skin.
"Who gives a damn!"
"I've been itching for a real fight for ages!"
"Executive Officer, system rules—whatever."
"If they dare stand in our way, we'll smash them all to pieces!"
Qi Chun roared through the comm channel.
"Bro! Count me in!"
"The Floating Fortress's main cannon has cooled down!"
"Ready for fire coverage at any moment!"