Chapter 74: A Mature Camera

The native inhabitants of the dungeon world have bizarre sleep schedules, obsessed with working deep into the night.

What do you do when cargo ships arrive at port in the middle of the night? Do the mail carriers even get to sleep?

Luckily, his willpower is high enough that going days without sleep doesn't affect his mental state; any ordinary person, even if the dungeon posed no danger, would suffer mental breakdown after thirty straight night shifts.

The mail carrier's satchel restores willpower—perhaps it was designed specifically for overtime.

But Wu Chang soon realized he had wrongly accused the post office's cargo ships.

It wasn't because the ships carried their own workers and didn't need mail carriers to work overtime.

It was because the crew on the cargo ships had no intention of loading or unloading any cargo at all.

Through the gaze of True Self, he saw two burly men appear on the deck, lift a wooden crate, chant "One, two, three," and hurl it straight off the ship.

The crate slammed onto the beach, half of it submerged in seawater.

They discarded the cargo like trash, and the ship immediately sailed out of the harbor without pausing.

As if Briver Island carried some filthy contaminant, and even one more second would pollute them.

Come on, are deliveries in this dungeon world really this careless?

This kind of violent unloading—doesn't the complaint system work?

They're just fast runners; if Mati and his crew had seen this, they'd have turned every last man on that ship into Blood Hawks and made them fly one by one.

Wu Chang arrived at the port and dragged the crate out of the seawater.

The crate was well-sealed—no water had gotten inside. It was large, but contained only three packages.

The recipients were: Mayor Harrison, Chief of Police Mo Leina, and grocery store owner Mati.

All major figures.

The package Mati mentioned had arrived—it was time to fulfill the former mail carrier's bloody last words.

On the return journey, passing the beach, he saw Xiang Jianxing and the assistants standing together; when the Spirit Fox spotted him, she waved to him.

Seeing them, Wu Chang remembered that when he first entered the dungeon, Xiang Jianxing had said they must meet daily to exchange intelligence.

Among the Management Bureau's group, he was the last to arrive.

After him, the Ronin and the Bald Man from the Iron Armor Group also arrived, burdened with worries.

After waiting a while longer and seeing no more arrivals, Xiang Jianxing began tonight's intelligence exchange.

The speaking order had apparently been set before Wu Chang arrived—the assistant from Dongyang City spoke first.

"My randomly assigned job was kitchen staff at a restaurant; the boss is a workaholic, staring at me nonstop, leaving me almost no time to rest or gather intelligence."

"But during lunch break, I overheard a waiter say the boss is competing for a crucial position and must work extremely hard to earn it."

The second to speak was the Hamster.

Because the crime rate on Briver Island is zero, her role as a probationary officer is extremely easy.

"But I don't believe the island is as safe as it appears—I secretly reviewed the case logs, and in the past thirty days, four outsiders have committed suicide, all in bizarre ways."

The Hamster looked up at Wu Chang and Xiang Jianxing and said:

"For example, the former mail carrier died from an accidental cut with a letter-opener. Besides suicides, there were other accidental deaths—like the former journalist who died of heatstroke."

Remember, Briver Island has a standard oceanic climate—mild winters, cool summers, frequent rain.

Dying of heatstroke in such a place is the most unexpected kind of accidental death imaginable.

Aside from these two, the others gathered little useful intelligence.

The Spirit Fox, after hearing Wu Chang's account, focused on staying hidden inside the cathedral; the cathedral rarely mentioned outside matters, only organizing regular prayers and listening to townspeople's confessions.

But she currently had no access to any of that.

The Gale's job was lighthouse keeper, currently undergoing handover from the old keeper.

The keys to the second floor and above are held by the old keeper—he must complete a ten-day internship and pass the evaluation before he can officially become lighthouse keeper and enter the upper levels.

Iron Face's job was crewman; by comparison, his situation was the worst.

Crewmen have rigid hierarchies—he spent an entire day scrubbing the deck without a single break.

Worse still, the veteran crewmen weren't even on board, so he couldn't even eavesdrop for scraps of information. Overall, all these rookies struggled just to finish their own duties and gathered almost no useful intelligence.

When it was Wu Chang's turn, he simply pulled out the clippings left behind by the former mail carrier and provided scattered details about the dungeon world; Xiang Jianxing was very satisfied.

Before Xiang Jianxing spoke, the Ronin, who had been listening quietly, couldn't hold back—he stared at Xiang Jianxing and said with unusual gravity: "These trivial, irrelevant details won't help no matter how many you hear—we need real, useful intelligence. The information you're hiding."

Xiang Jianxing frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Han Shi is missing. When we first entered the dungeon, you mentioned multiple times how critical the dungeon was—you must know something behind the scenes, right?"

The Iron Armor Group's trio were close-knit; now, for Han Shi, the Ronin's tone was hostile, clearly ready to turn violent if Xiang Jianxing refused to speak.

For Xiang Jianxing, clearing the dungeon was the top priority—he didn't know what tricks the hidden cultists might pull next, and he needed to secure every possible ally.

After a brief hesitation, he revealed the existence of the Deepwater Society.

But to prevent Wu Chang and the other newcomers from falling into utter despair, he didn't say the team that entered was a B-rank exploration squad—he called it an ordinary dungeon-clearing group.

As for the details about jobs and their importance, they came from two Deepwater Society players who had gone insane and were now under control.

The word they repeated most often was "work."

After two cases of malicious loss of control, the Management Bureau traced the trail and uncovered the threat of the Quiet Town—this explanation sounded plausible.

Xiang Jianxing even named the Deepwater Society outright, greatly increasing the credibility of this information.

Added to that, in the trio's division of labor, they had specifically told Han Shi to temporarily avoid work—perfectly matching Xiang Jianxing's repeated emphasis on "work."

The Ronin said skeptically: "So you're saying Han Shi's disappearance is tied to his refusal to work?"

At this, the Dongyang City assistant raised his hand and whispered: "I've seen your companion."

The Ronin stepped forward to the assistant. "Where? When?"

"Just after dark, at the restaurant."

The assistant recounted what happened in the restaurant; after listening, the Ronin fell silent for a moment, then turned and left the beach with the Bald Man.

After the two men walked far away, Wu Chang muttered in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear:

"Are they freeloaders, getting information for free?"

Xiang Jianxing didn't care about this; after the two men left, he began sharing the intelligence he had obtained.

He took out from his personal space a wooden box the size of a small travel suitcase, with a thick lens protruding from its front and a clumsy and heavy tripod fixed beneath it.

He shared the item's description with everyone.

"Item name: Fully Automatic Camera."

"Item type: Dungeon Item."

"Item rank: D."

"Item skill: Snap Shot."

"Skill description: As a mature camera, it autonomously seeks out major news and captures unexpected photographs. But sometimes, the photos it takes bring misfortune to the user."

"Note: Although only reporters can use this camera, because it is too mature and acts according to its own will, it sometimes loses control and snaps freely at whatever it senses."

Xiang Jianxing pulled out twenty or so black-and-white photographs; beneath each photo, small notes indicated the location where it was taken.

"This camera is a reporter's exclusive tool, capable of capturing supernatural images invisible to the naked eye. I believe these photos may conceal vital clues—everyone, take a look and memorize them."

Wu Chang flipped through the photos and asked casually, "Are these all the anomalous zones on the island?"

Xiang Jianxing smiled bitterly. "Not at all—these photos are only a small fraction. Each time this camera takes a shot, my temporary inspiration cap increases by 0.5. Just taking these nearly pushed me into inspiration overload."

Wu Chang flipped through the photos without showing any expression; when he turned to a photo labeled "Before the Cathedral," his gaze paused.

In his eyes, this photo was in color.

More precisely, it was red.

The red of resentment.

(End of Chapter)