Chapter 393 - 391: Leaderboard Update, A Sense of Urgency

She swept through the seafloor while she was there, collecting another two Wooden Treasure Chests and discovering a massive shipwreck.

The ship, however, was badly rusted, with only its keel remaining.

Amid the wreckage, however, Faye Yardley still managed to find a chest of gold and silver jewels and a set of still-gleaming golden embroidered clothes.

After rummaging around and finding nothing else, Faye Yardley was about to leave when Blackwood zipped over with a WHOOSH. It inhaled sharply from a nearby skeleton, drawing a cloud of gray-white mist into its mouth. Afterward, Blackwood went rigid and began to float.

Faye Yardley strode over and scooped it up, noticing that it had regained some of the cold, hard texture it had as the Bronze Cat Statue.

To Faye Yardley’s astonishment, the skeleton dissolved directly into the seawater.

She looked down at Blackwood in her hand and muttered, "You’re really not afraid of getting an upset stomach, are you, Blackwood?"

"Alright, let’s head back."

Letting Bramble wrap around her waist, Faye Yardley made her way upward.

Only after returning to the raft did she realize it was already October 2nd.

The previous day’s leaderboards had already been updated, and Faye Yardley was still firmly holding first place on the Combat Power Rankings.

However, she had dropped to second place on the Raft Rankings.

Surprisingly, first place now belonged to Zachary Pierce.

Logan Langdon had dropped all the way to fourth, but he had caught up on the individual Combat Power Rankings, now sitting in second place.

It seemed most people felt their rafts were sufficient as they were and rarely made any major efforts to expand them.

Everyone was, however, quite proactive about increasing their personal combat power and developing their guild’s strength.

This meant Faye Yardley’s attribute bonus from the rankings was slightly smaller, but it didn’t have much of an impact on her now.

After all, her own Attributes were about to break through to Tier Five; she just needed to raise her agility and Spirit.

Perhaps this was a good time to contact Jay Jonas and try the stimulation therapy she had passed on before.

Seeing Logan Langdon catching up gave Faye Yardley a sense of urgency. ’I refuse to lose!’

She would also have to redesign and upgrade her raft. She couldn’t let herself get knocked down the Raft Rankings again.

Faye Yardley stared at the various rankings for a moment before having the system dismiss them.

’It really is hard for one person to focus on every area of development.’

The moment she had that thought, Faye Yardley smacked her forehead. ’All the more reason to work harder and not waste a single moment.’

She placed Blackwood on the fireplace mantel, tossed Bramble to the side, then went upstairs for a quick shower. After changing her clothes, she called Jay Jonas to ask about the High Tier stimulation therapy.

His response was straightforward: she should come over and experience it firsthand. After all, they were also hoping to conduct more High Tier experiments.

So, Faye Yardley didn’t hesitate, accepting the invitation and heading over immediately.

Since she was prepared to undergo the experiment, Faye Yardley was fully cooperative after arriving at the lab, doing whatever was asked of her.

She hadn’t expected, however, that simply because her Constitution and Strength Attributes had surpassed the 50-point mark, the lab’s equipment could no longer test them accurately. The data captured for her Spirit and agility, on the other hand, was only off by a margin of ±1 from her actual values.

She didn’t intentionally remove her agility-boosting ring. The stat increase wasn’t huge, but more importantly, she wouldn’t deliberately take it off anyway. It was part of her own power now.

"Yardley, are you sure you want to try this?" Zachary Pierce, who had just walked in, asked Faye Yardley with a serious expression. "The process might be uncomfortable, and the results aren’t guaranteed to be positive."

In truth, participating in this experiment might not be of great help to Faye Yardley herself; it would arguably be of even greater help to them.

That was why it was important to clarify these things beforehand.

Faye Yardley nodded. "Yes, Mr. Pierce. Mr. Jonas already went over everything you just said. I’m well aware."

Once her attribute values were tested and she confirmed she wanted to proceed, a young man in a white lab coat approached with a syringe filled with a pale purple liquid. He glanced around before speaking to Faye Yardley. "Please sit still and don’t move. We’ve prepared this special high-dose formula based on your agility attribute. We’re going to inject it into the vein in your left arm. Speak up immediately if you feel any discomfort. We can stop the injection at any time, but you must not leave this chair."

"Okay."

As he spoke, the researcher knelt by Faye Yardley’s left side, held the syringe, aimed, and pricked her skin... but the needle didn’t go in.

He looked doubtfully at the large-gauge needle, then back at Faye Yardley’s seemingly fair and delicate arm. ’Have I really gotten so bad I can’t even perform a simple injection?’ he wondered.

He tried again. POKE... Still nothing.

The needle bent.

Faye Yardley looked at him. He looked back at her.

Zachary Pierce cleared his throat. "Get a new needle. I’ll do it."

With the bonus from the leaderboards, Faye Yardley’s Constitution had already reached 57. The researcher, meanwhile, had only just broken through to First Tier in Strength.

Faye Yardley hadn’t expected this either and couldn’t help but remark, "Wow, I didn’t realize my skin was already this tough."

She truly had never thought about it. Her previous encounters with enemies had all been straightforward fights to the death. Who had time to analyze whether she took little damage because her skin was tough and her defense was high, or simply because her opponent’s attack power was low?

She had always just chalked it up to her overall power level. She’d never had such a simple, direct demonstration that some low-level attacks couldn’t even break her natural defense while she stood perfectly still.

"It’s not very flattering for a young woman to say she’s thick-skinned," Zachary Pierce remarked. He took the new syringe, knelt down, and smoothly pushed the needle into her arm. He then looked up at Faye Yardley. "Ready?"

"Yes."

As the pale purple liquid was slowly injected into her left arm, Faye Yardley instantly felt a searing pain begin to spread through her body.

This pain was very different from what she’d felt when taking a Body Refining Pill, but pain was still pain, and Faye Yardley had long since learned to endure it.

All the data points on the chair connected to her body began to light up.

"Boss, that kid, Mr. Lewis—the one the big boss knows—just came by and asked if he could join our guild," Gavin Donovan said quietly, finding a moment to approach Ethan Yardley.

Ethan Yardley remembered Kyle Lewis. "What, can’t he hack it on his own anymore? I can provide him with some supplies personally, but as for joining the guild... tell him it’s not some perfectly safe haven. He’ll have to follow orders, and we organize teams for Dungeons, island expeditions, treasure hunts, and so on. He..."

Ethan’s main impression of Kyle Lewis was that he was a lucky mama’s boy, and he had serious reservations about his combat abilities.

More importantly, Logan Langdon had specifically approached him about this before. Although Ethan hadn’t agreed to anything, if he were to seriously consider recruiting Kyle, he’d have to meet him in person first.

But before any of that, he needed to contact his sister and get her opinion. Regarding both Logan Langdon and Kyle Lewis, her attitude was what mattered most.