Chương 11: Treasure Eyes

It was often said that if a thing is given for free, the price is often you or something of the kind, Nyx couldn't clearly recall. Not after seeing the thing guarding the treasure chest. An at least twenty-foot-tall creature, taller than even a woolly mammoth, a fluff-covered white wolf with six blue eyes. The thing appeared both heavenly in its beauty and hellish in its lethality, its claws easily several inches thick and sharp enough to cleave him in two in one sweep.

Well, I'd expected there to be some hurdles to getting a treasure chest this rare.

"Except that thing looks more like some Pokemon raid boss than a simple obstacle." The creature was sleeping, with the chest—which resembled a bronze egg rather than a square box—resting around its belly. Stealing it without stirring the creature was an impossible scenario. Nyx examined his weapon, a simple M416 assault rifle that could only fire 5. 56mm rounds. He didn't feel much confidence in its ability to harm the creature. And there was a good reason for that.

Its hide, even from as far away as he was, still looked thick, similar to a lion's mane. In fact, it was covered in such dense fur that the creature appeared as though it had come straight out of the arctic. The presence of this creature raised an interesting question in his mind. The temperature. Even though the sun was hammering down on them like nothing else, the temperature was actually pretty cool.

Mainly because of the wind, which was also why he wasn't literally being cooked alive while driving, since his amazing vehicle lacked any equally amazing AC. And coupled with this creature's appearance, he couldn't help but wonder whether the temperature would drop in the future. Even ignoring that, Nyx now had a good, big, lethal problem to deal with. Bronze treasure chests were very rare, so rare that he'd only heard of one guy—with an inferno army summoning skill—who'd gotten his hands on one.

Even the Green Ghost Fleet and the Heavenly Fleet hadn't been able to get one. And that usually boastful bastard had very conveniently not let out a single word about what these egg-shaped chests contained. So, in short, he had no idea whether the chest would be worth all the risk or not. But if his gut and the unusually heavy protection around the chest were anything to go by, the odds of it being worth it were high.

"But to deal with that boss guarding it, something more lethal than these mini rounds… perhaps purchasing a more destructive weapon is in order." He slowly retreated his vehicle to a safer spot, parked it, and opened the [Exchange] system tab. There was an assortment of heavy weapons, machine guns, and Gatling guns on offer. But what he was after were the anti-material rifles. If possible, he wanted to one-shot the thing. After browsing for a while, Nyx finally settled on a rifle.

The Anzio 20mm, a ferociously long-barreled, magazine-fed anti-material rifle with an off-white, ivory finish. It was going for fifteen gold. After some haggling, Nyx managed to knock it down by five gold. He also sold a few kilograms of fertilizer to a guy with farming skills who'd been yapping about it in the chat, earning five more gold, and used it to buy himself another gun. This one was a hand-holdable anti-material gun—specifically, the Triple Action Thunder, or The Thunder for short.

"Damn, didn't know anti-material weapons came in this kind of format," Nyx said, turning the gun over in his hands, admiring its silver, smooth finish.

"It looks like some fictional sci-fi gun." Though he couldn't help but internally wonder whether the seller had handed him some unusable prototype trash. The system actually had a good reputation for not allowing low-quality goods in. That much had been proven when some people tried to put up rashly made, low-quality fertilizers for sale.

"Speaking of which, I should sell my stock quickly before someone finds an alternative." It was a good, low-risk idea. People out here were desperate for money, and with tons of individuals wielding unique magical skills working together, he didn't believe it would take long for them to find a solution to the scarcity.

"Either way, time to test these out." He set the heavy, nearly fifteen-kilogram Anzio 20mm rifle on the ground and aimed at a zombie far in the distance. It was walking painfully slowly, nearly stumbling with each step. So he judged the next spot it would shuffle into and aimed the muzzle there, targeting its shoulders. As the zombie came within his sights, Nyx pulled the trigger. The recoil shoved him back slightly.

The massive 20mm round tore across the plains and punched through the zombie's muscle and bone before lodging in and blasting out through the ribcage, literally severing its upper half from its lower half. It was like he'd thrown a grenade at a watermelon. After taking his shot, Nyx heard growls from behind him. Sure enough, there were two more zombies. At their approach, Nyx quickly recalled the Anzio to his inventory and summoned the Triple Action Thunder.

The gun materialized cleanly in his hands with a cool sensation as he raised the shining silver muzzle. Since he was firing it for the first time, he let it close in a bit more than necessary before pulling the trigger. A crisp bang rang out across the forest as the nearest zombie's head burst apart, brain matter and gore flying everywhere. The reload time on this one was five seconds, the next universal round automatically chambering itself without him needing to do a thing.

The moment it finished reloading, another gunshot cracked out, and the second zombie exploded into pieces.

"Phew, this one's lethal." He stowed the gun back in his inventory and hopped onto the racer.

"Time to go hunt some wolves!" Nyx said excitedly, and with a twist of the throttle, his vehicle roared to life and began climbing the mountain once more. …. [You've awakened the unique skill, Treasure Eyes] This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. That was the beginning of Syrin's life on the endless plains. She'd previously been just a simple coach at an all-girls gym.

After being transported over, the last thing she'd expected to receive as a supernatural ability was these eyes—ones that let her see treasure trails, lines of gold leading her to fortunate encounters. She'd first thought she'd gotten screwed, saddled with a campervan instead of a proper battle vehicle, and a utility skill instead of an offensive one. But as it turned out, the utility skill was extremely good. Treasure chests held gold and were by far one of the least risky paths to acquiring resources.

But there was still an issue. Every golden trail she followed led straight into danger along the way. The first chest she'd found after the survival game began was a black iron chest. It sat atop a tree inside Stardew Mountain. She knew how to climb trees. So did bears. Yeah, the thing was being guarded by three freaking brown bears! Now, if she'd had a machine gun or something, she could've just climbed a nearby tree and shot them all dead. But the first weapon her wooden chest had given her was a Glock—a handgun!

She'd never used weapons before. There were boxing coaches at the gym she'd worked at, but she'd never spoken to them beyond the bare minimum, let alone taken any lessons from them. And even if she had, boxing was useless here. A good physique built from a sport like boxing might help someone wield cold weapons better. But really, few people were like the Heavenly Demon, who could survive the first night on a motorcycle armed with nothing but swords.

"The Heavenly Demon, sheesh, that girl keeps racking up peak titles one after another." She shook her head, browsing through the [Exchange] for decent weapons.

"Though the name of my own organization isn't exactly lacking either. Hehe." She giggled, looking at the new tab that listed her as captain of a fleet. [Astral Treasure Fleet] Yes, she'd opened up a whole fleet and even registered it under the system's organization feature. It had cost her a full five gold to do so. Where had she gotten the money, when just the other night she'd had to beg strangers on the radio for help? Pretty simple, actually.

Previously, she'd guarded her ability very secretively, telling no one about its function, since other people could easily capture her for it and exploit it for their own benefit. So she'd gone about hunting for chests, getting repeatedly chased off by the guards protecting each valuable one, until she'd even had to abandon that bronze chest up Stardew Mountain when night fell, that was also guarded by a ferocious beast, so it wasn't like she would've been able to take it anyway.

And just like that, a whole bronze chest had slipped through her fingers, and she'd had to swallow her pride just to save her life. But after being saved by a boy several years younger than her, Syrin had come to a decision: she wouldn't hoard the information for herself anymore out of greed for the whole loot. She sealed this new resolve by handing Nyx the location of the bronze chest for free.

And ever since leaving Nyx's watchful eyes, she'd spent the entire night combing through regional chats and exchanges like a hawk. Whenever she spotted gold-lined text, she immediately messaged that individual, offering her services. Her ability didn't just mark treasure chests as treasure —it also marked people of strength! The text bubbles of these individuals always appeared trimmed in gold to her. So it took a little digging to track down a bunch of big shots' accounts.

The next thing she did, after locating a handful of solid targets, was hand over a few treasure chest locations for free. In total, she knew of five black chest locations, and she gave those away to twenty different people! Of them, only six actually went to check the spots—mostly just decently wealthy individuals, while the ultra-wealthy ones brushed her off entirely. After those six secured their free chests, she went to them and laid out the full extent of her ability.

Hearing it, they all scrambled to recruit her into their fleets. She turned them down flatly and instead offered a contract: she'd provide at least one black iron chest location per day, so long as they transferred her two gold and a hundred universal bullets. The offer was too good and the price too cheap, so they agreed on the spot—and as a show of good faith, sent the payment in advance. For the first time, she heard the jingle of coins landing in her account. A whole twelve gold! Without even risking her life!

With the cash, she first upgraded her campervan's outer shell to level two and bought herself a reliable AK-47. The next step of her plan was simple: reach out to the information brokers on [Exchange], like the Arcana Archivist or the Nine-Tailed Raccoon. She laid out her ability to them as well and proposed a separate deal—she'd earn one gold for every wooden chest location she supplied to others, with the broker handling the transactions on her behalf.

After easing their suspicions by showing her past clients' chats and tossing in a few more free locations, they finally signed the contract. She then spent the hours around dawn scouring the plains for treasure chests, and within three hours had found twelve more wooden chests and a single black iron chest. Selling that information earned her another fifteen gold, padded further by tips from clients eager to keep a good relationship with her.

She then used some of it to set up her organization, the Astral Treasure Fleet. Her reasoning was simple: she planned to find distressed people and those stuck with weak vehicles, recruit them into her fleet, and use them to chase down the treasure locations she uncovered—climbing the plains' hierarchy fast.

"Just you lot watch, there won't be a second time I have to beg for help. I promise." She said, gritting her teeth, her eyes glowing with golden light as lines of gold spread out before her. Twenty golden lines stretched out, all converging on a single spot deep in the Eastern desert. The number and density of golden lines usually signified the rarity of the chest.

"For the bronze chest up Stardew Mountain, I only saw ten golden lines leading to it. But this…" The count was nearly double, which pointed to a silver chest. But that also meant something far worse would be guarding it—for the bronze chest, she'd seen that wolf beast standing watch. This one would surely be guarded by something even nastier. After driving for another hour, she finally reached the spot where all the lines converged into a massive golden cocoon.

At its center sat a large, five-foot-tall silver treasure chest. And coiled around it lay a giant snake…

"Wait, that's not a normal snake… it's a winged snake!" A deep chill ran through Syrin's body at the sight of it. The creature was curled around the chest, easily fifty feet long, its body thick enough to rival the width of her van. Its sleek, cream-colored scales gleamed under the harsh sun like the scales of some ornamental Japanese koi. Occasionally its slitted eyes cracked open, grey pupils darting left and right as if watching for passersby. Syrin kept a good distance from it.

And yet, it still felt as though the snake could close that gap and reach her the instant it spotted her. There was no way she could take this thing on alone. So she quickly turned her car around and put more distance between them, parking several meters from its location. She weighed her next move. Giving away this thing's location, even for a hefty sum, would still be a loss.

At best she'd get some good gear, but if she wasn't mistaken, chests this rare tended to hold things far more valuable than simple mod cards. Rumor had it they could even contain evolution stones—and that the Heavenly Demon had gotten her hands on one and used it to evolve her skill, which was what let her roam the plains unhindered now. But according to those same rumors, it was bronze chests that dropped those. A silver chest? That was bound to hold even more!

"And my ability's already so useful—if I can evolve it further…" The possibilities were endless! With her ability enhanced even further, she'd be able to claim a far more meteoric rise! But for that, she'd first need to gather some subordinates and put together a raiding party. Syrin's eyes shone with the color of molten gold, "I'd be damned if I didn't claim every last bit of this chest's contents for myself!" she clenched her hands and vowed. Turning over her vehicle, she shot forth towards the central plains.

The place with the highest concentration of desperate, poor survivors.