Cave Refuge

Having just registered and set out for the first time as a Pioneer, Dong Tianyu was certainly going to follow the rules.

Watching Dong Tianyu enter the Companion Spiritual Treasure, the submarine-like vessel began to gradually disappear from the water's surface, arousing fervent gazes in the eyes of some onlookers.

After all, compared to others who had crowds accompanying them every time they went out to sea, these people had watched Dong Tianyu's Companion Spiritual Treasure being summoned straight from the Sea of Consciousness, which meant that during the sea voyage, there was only Dong Tianyu himself inside the Companion Spiritual Treasure.

Though all those who came to the dock prepared to sail were full of adventure spirit, they weren't foolish; following someone with a Companion Spiritual Treasure that had undergone branching evolution was definitely much safer than following those whose Companion Spiritual Treasures had not yet evolved.

Given Dong Tianyu's current state, which was clearly that of a newcomer who had just settled in the Magic Capital Base and hadn't started recruiting crew members, everyone started frantically looking for information on Dong Tianyu, hoping to volunteer for him as soon as he returned from his voyage.

Having already left the dock, Dong Tianyu was unaware of the situation he left behind. He preferred to explore the underwater conditions over the established Waterway on the sea's surface.

Looking through the observation room at the front of the Companion Spiritual Treasure, as he descended into the depths, Dong Tianyu could see the seabed's situation at a glance.

Not far from the Magic Capital Base, Dong Tianyu had already encountered many different marine creatures underwater. Although these creatures looked quite strange, through Spiritual Sense Scanning, Dong Tianyu confirmed that these marine creatures were ordinary.

Even now, with such a diversity of marine creatures, those peculiar creatures that hid at the bottom of the deep sea during the Natural Disaster period were not encountered.

Perhaps it was the presence of so many marine creatures that had prevented the newly established Magic Capital Base from experiencing a food shortage for the time being.

The reason why Dong Tianyu chose the deep sea over the surface was to find those peculiar creatures encountered underwater during the Natural Disaster period. After all, whether they were those peculiar marine creatures or the Mysterious Ships hidden in the depths, any encounter would be a good harvest for Dong Tianyu.

However, things did not always go as desired. Dong Tianyu dove underwater for a whole day, having already left the explored area marked on the Sea Chart and arrived at the area pending validation, without encountering any special creatures.

The Sea Charts issued by the Maritime Bureau to Pioneers divided the sea into three different zones: areas with over a hundred Pioneers' check-ins were deemed explored and safe zones; areas with check-ins from one to ninety-nine Pioneers were pending validation; and areas with no check-ins were considered unknown zones.

Normally, there are no fixed check-in points in unknown zones; as long as it's over five nautical miles away from the nearest check-in point, check-ins can be made anywhere.

As for pending validation zones, the check-in points are randomly determined by the Maritime Bureau. Before Pioneers set out, the Bureau would mark the specific check-in points on their electronic Sea Charts. Once they return, even if they head to the same area next time, the check-in points might have changed.

As for those explored and safe marine areas, the check-in locations are fixed, but the distance between two check-in points is usually no less than thirty nautical miles.

Due to poor signals underwater, when the Companion Spiritual Treasure reached the edge of the pending validation zone and was about to enter unexplored waters, Dong Tianyu finally navigated it to emerge above the water's surface.

Looking around at the empty scene, Dong Tianyu sighed with some helplessness. He had thought that having reached an area yet unexplored by other Pioneers, he might encounter some serendipity. The idea was beautiful, but the reality was cruel; looking at the surrounding sea with not even a piece of floating trash other than water, Dong Tianyu felt somewhat helpless.

In fact, having stayed underwater for so long, apart from entering the Cave for Cultivation, there were times when he gave things a bit of thought, and Dong Tianyu had also somewhat come to a realization.

The arrival of different Natural Disasters was like a long-running game that releases different versions periodically. The presence of Mysterious Ships or those special creatures in the water before was due to the version changes. Now that the flood that submerged the land had receded, the version had clearly changed. So now, exploring the sea was essentially like working against the version's tide.

Although many had registered as Pioneers, the main gain for Pioneers was from rewards issued by the Officials, which were largely man-made or within the scope of what the Officials could offer.

Working for the Officials had its advantages; with a minimum guarantee, serious work always led to rewards. However, its drawbacks were also quite clear. Since the rewards came from the Officials, they would only give what they possessed, meaning the reward ceiling wasn't high, and one shouldn't even dream of top-tier items.

Dong Tianyu happened to have no interest in ordinary items or even rarer man-made goods. Dong Tianyu's foundation was the Cave, and at this stage of its development, absorbing and decomposing man-made objects hardly provided any improvement anymore. At this point, Dong Tianyu needed those Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures that humanity could not yet cultivate or manufacture.