Walking through the streets of the capital, Su Xiao noticed the shops on either side until he spotted one called "Dulu Grocery." He stopped in his tracks. This was exactly the place he was looking for, so he entered the quiet little store.
"Hey, Sir Guard, our shop paid the security fee three days ago, so why...?" The store owner looked at him as if he were a plague god, clearly having been pushed around by the guards before.
"I'm not here to collect the security fee. Do you have a certain type of plant...?"
Half an hour later, Su Xiao left the grocery store with a smile on his face. The shopkeeper enthusiastically saw him off, indicating that Su Xiao had bought quite a lot.
Killing the master of Kolbo Mountain would not be easy. According to Su Xiao's memory, the tiger there was at least several times larger than an ordinary tiger, standing about four to five meters tall—a true monster.
Instead of heading straight to the wild to find the master of Kolbo Mountain, Su Xiao first returned to the guard headquarters. After wandering around the headquarters for a bit, he made his way to the storage warehouse.
With the death of Oka, the guard team was left without a leader. In just one morning, it seemed like factions were starting to form within the team. Hank and Oka's two trusted aides were already in a power struggle.
Tomorrow night was the deadline for burning waste materials, so today a new guard leader had to be chosen; otherwise, it would affect big matters.
In this chaotic situation, Su Xiao easily sneaked into the warehouse. After spending some time there, he left the guard team and headed towards Kolbo Mountain.
Looking at the distant city gate, Su Xiao remembered sneaking in through it before. Now, getting out of the city was simple; he just needed to walk straight ahead.
The gate guards nodded at Su Xiao when they saw him and let him pass without asking any questions.
After passing through the city gate and walking past the waste disposal site, Su Xiao saw a vast forest. This was Kolbo Mountain, the place where the original protagonist, Luffy, grew up.
As he entered the forest, Su Xiao immediately felt the air was fresher, filled with the scents of various plants. Some unknown birds chirped incessantly on the branches, and occasionally, gentle herbivores moved through the vegetation, not too afraid of humans.
Though Kolbo Mountain was beautiful, it was also dangerous, often home to fierce beasts, making it a place most people dared not venture into.
Walking alone in the forest, Su Xiao kept his hand on the hilt of his knife. He looked relaxed, but he was actually alert to the slightest sound around him.
The dense woods around him weren’t suitable for his "hunting ground." He needed an open area.
The clearing didn’t have to be too big, but it needed to meet two conditions.
First, it had to have a water source. The Goya Kingdom was on an island, and lack of water was a common issue, so water sources on Kolbo Mountain were scarce. If he could find one, his chances of locating the giant tiger would increase significantly.
Second, the clearing needed some vegetation cover to make it easier for him to set traps.
Of course, the traps Su Xiao planned to set were not just simple pits to lure the master of Kolbo Mountain into. The soil on Kolbo Mountain wasn’t very hard, and a creature of that size would definitely cause a collapse unless the pit was reinforced with concrete. If that happened, there would be no escape.
Finding a good spot for his traps was not easy, but after three hours of searching, Su Xiao finally found a satisfactory location.
It was a clearing surrounded by trees, covered in lush green grass and dotted with colorful wildflowers, giving off a faint floral scent.
Upon smelling the flowers, Su Xiao frowned. The scent could affect his plan, but it had its pros and cons; it could help mask the smell of some items he would set up.
He took a shovel out of his storage space, removed his jacket, and began digging a pit in the clearing.
Two hours later, Su Xiao hid in a large tree near the clearing. The area looked completely normal, with just a few nuts scattered on the ground.
Sweat dripped down Su Xiao's face, revealing his well-defined muscles. His build wasn’t overly exaggerated; it looked very smooth.
In fact, those overly muscular fighters weren’t suited for combat. While strong muscles could enhance power, they also affected speed and flexibility, which was not good for fighting.
Su Xiao had tried this before. He went to a well-known boxing gym to spar with their best fighting coach.
From Su Xiao's estimation, that heavily muscled coach was at least twice as strong as him and had a very fast punch.
However, just five minutes into their match, the coach, who was said to have won a city-level free-fighting championship, collapsed on the ground, twitching, while some female students looked on with sympathy.
Su Xiao focused on killing techniques, while that coach trained for competition; the two were fundamentally different.
If there were rules, Su Xiao might not be the coach's match, but in a life-or-death struggle, he could kill the coach in two minutes.
Seeing Su Xiao's height of around 1.8 meters and not particularly muscular build, the coach had said, "No need for rules in sparring," which led to his unfortunate fate...
Su Xiao sat on a sturdy branch, holding an old flintlock pistol with three bullets left.
He had previously tried to load the gun, but the reincarnation paradise warned him that due to severe wear, loading it could damage the gun beyond repair.
This was probably a limitation since he had found the gun and not obtained it from a treasure chest.
After opening two white treasure chests, Su Xiao had a rough understanding of some rules of the reincarnation paradise.
Items obtained from treasure chests were mostly governed by the rules and could be taken out of the pirate world, while items picked up or gained during missions had a chance of being taken out, like the "Dragon Slayer Flash" at his waist.
Through his initial exploration, Su Xiao reached some conclusions.
The semi-digitalization of living beings was just a hint. For example, the concept of his strength increasing from 6 to 7 was a clear indication of him getting stronger.
As for things like health points, they couldn't be precisely quantified; at most, they were calculated as percentages. There wouldn’t be a situation where he struck an enemy and they lost a specific number of health points.
The health bar above an enemy's head was more for showing their life signs. The more it decreased, the weaker the enemy became.
When receiving a fatal injury, the enemy would die immediately, even if they still had 100% health; the health bar would disappear, and they would die afterward.
The data on equipment or items was even more interesting.
For example, the "Dragon Slayer Flash" at his waist had durability and additional attributes that Su Xiao could understand, while its attack power of 5 to 16 referred to the sharpness and strength of the weapon.
The equipment score was the most important data, as it provided a clear view of the item's value.
After a few battles, Su Xiao understood that while it was semi-digitalized, it was just to help estimate strength; everything was based on reality, without any game-like situations.
The semi-digitalization was meant to more intuitively reflect his strength and the value of items.
This was the greatest help the reincarnation paradise had given Su Xiao.
(End of Chapter)