The words that had appeared out of thin air in front of him made Ed confused for a second, and then he was excited beyond words. If an all-rounder otaku like him couldn't understand what a transparent, floating blue window before his eyes and a sweet, mechanical female voice in his head represented, then he might as well hand himself over to the curse.
F*cking yes! Finally, here comes my own "golden finger"! Damn you, b*tch, you almost gave me a heart attack. I thought I didn't get any cheats at all!
Taking a deep breath to calm himself down, Ed began to study his 'System'. Judging by its name, it seemed to be mostly related to treasure hunting.
"System, open the status window," Ed said, doing his best to control himself and not start jumping with excitement.
...?
Nothing?
"Then, System, what can you do?"
"Hello? System, can you hear me?" Ed, who couldn't understand what was going on or how a system that had just woken up could enter sleep mode again, hit his head and spoke confusedly.
"F*ck! Don't tell me it doesn't have assistant software at all and only works on special conditions... Hooo, calm down, Ed, calm down and think. How did it activate before?... Hmm, I was looking at the map, and it suddenly turned on."
"Wait, so it can only scan for treasure? Because it is a treasure hunting system?" Ed wondered, rubbing his hair in frustration.
"Does this mean it's only useful for leading me toward treasure and can't make me otherworldly powerful like those damn guys in novels? The ones who just kill people, collect EXP, and become powerful enough in a few weeks to kick anyone's ass as they please? This is f*cking cheating! I wanted to change my system! Hey, is there any customer service?"
After complaining for nearly five minutes and seeing that he was just wasting his breath like an idiot with no one to listen to his nonsense, Ed finally gave up. He looked at the map in his hand, which had been completely covered by a transparent blue holographic window after the system's scan. Drastic changes had appeared on the simple map drawn by the original owner—a map that even a kindergarten child could have drawn better. The original owner of Ed's body really had no talent for drawing at all.
This simple map was of Golden Wheat Island beneath his feet. At this time, four circular light spots appeared on the map, emitting a faint glow.
Three of the light spots were white, scattered all over the island. The last light spot was blue. Obviously, there would be no glowing light spots on the original map; those lights were actually on the holographic blue window. So even if someone else looked at this map now, it would still be the same random, dirty drawing, and only he, the owner, could recognize the hand-drawn map.
Ed closed his eyes briefly and then opened them again. The holographic window and the light spots on the map instantly disappeared. It returned to the simple map he had just viewed, without any special features. To check how this feature of his not-so-reliable system worked, he closed his eyes again and then opened them, and the holographic window again covered the map, the light spots reappearing.
"Hmm, so this is the switch to turn the main function of the system on and off. I have to say, it's a bit cool. Anyway, so according to the text just displayed, are these light spots the treasures scanned out, buried in different corners of the island?"
Thinking this, Ed, out of curiosity, stretched out his finger and tapped one of the white spots.
[ Normal Treasure
Difficulty: Children
Popularity: 0
Treasure Information: Unknown ]
"A very brief introduction. As expected of a system that can't even provide its host with a user manual or basic guidance. Big name but no substance, cheap bastard," Sighing, he continued his internal monologue.
"So a white dot is the location of a treasure? Then what about the others?" Looking at the transparent, floating window before him, giving off a full futuristic vibe, Ed couldn't help but complain even more in his heart. But alas, there was nothing he could do about it, so he simply moved on and clicked on another white dot. The information column changed without any delay; at least the system's processing was reliable.
[ Hidden Private Money
Difficulty: Teenager
Popularity: 2
Treasure Information: Something buried by your father many years ago.]
"It's still a white dot, but the introduction for this treasure spot is obviously different. First, the name is more specific, or rather, the system directly clarified the entire story instead of giving a spoiler. The difficulty is different, but I still have no idea what those weird difficulty names even mean. The popularity isn't zero, meaning at least two people know about it, and the treasure information is also displayed, which was obviously the most confusing part."
"Wait a minute... Is this white location... my home?"
This map was drawn by the original owner—well, better not to talk about the quality. Although simple, it was still a relatively rigorous map. The ports, towns, and cliffs on the island were clearly marked, and of course, this house was one of them, marked with a smiley emoji.
"Private money hidden by my father?"
As Ed thought about it, the direction became very clear, and he began to search his memory.
When the original owner of his body was about eight or nine years old, he had seen with his own eyes his father burying something in the small yard outside the house. When his father saw him, he made a shushing gesture.
"So that's it. Since it's the memory of the original body, it's like extracting information from a database; there shouldn't be any forgetfulness in it. The treasure information shows my understanding of this treasure. Because I have some knowledge of it, the name changes, directly showing that this treasure is private money."
"So, does this system complete the information using what it obtains from my mind?"
He didn't have a clear memory that what his father buried was his private money, so this speculation was questionable. The so-called "popularity" should be the number of people who know about it. The people who know this treasure are himself and his father, so it's 2, even though his father died when he was a little over ten.
"The difficulty is the most obvious. The first treasure is for 'Children,' which literally means even children can find it. The second difficulty is 'Teenager,' and the reason for the name is self-evident—as long as you have a shovel and the strength, you can dig out the buried treasure. So what about this blue dot? Is there something special about the color, different from white? Or is it the same as what I'm thinking, that it represents the quality of the treasure?"
Thinking this, Ed reached out and clicked on the blue dot.
[ Jack's Magic Treasure
Difficulty: Adult
Popularity: 1325
Treasure Information: The legacy and inheritance of the captain of the famous treasure-hunting ship "The Dream Poker"—"Magician" Jack Monk.]
"So this is the blue dot I need to find to save my life from that damn curse. This doesn't seem too difficult?" After seeing the introduction for this treasure spot, Ed's nervous heart finally relaxed. A sense of security washed over him—his life was finally guaranteed. He wouldn't have to be separated from his new girlfriend so soon, at least not before solving a few of her most important problems, which was his honest duty as a lover.
With the comparison of these three different treasure spots, all his previous speculations were confirmed. There were two points about the treasure he didn't know, and God knows where the system dug up that information. First, he—or rather, the original owner of his current body—didn't know the name of Jack's former ship, let alone that the treasure also carried his inheritance. This was additional information the almighty, golden Sherlock Holmes system supplied, based on nothing. Only the system knew how its circuits worked.
"Only the color of the treasure spot is still in doubt. But if I'm not wrong, based on years of gaming experience, it should be related to the preciousness of the treasure. White is the lowest rank, and blue should be the second rank, with other colors likely above it. This can be verified by obtaining the treasures; it's just a matter of time."
"Anyway, back to the topic. 'Jack's Magic Treasure' is known to more than 1,300 people, which is almost the entire population of this island. In other words, this treasure is only somewhat well-known on this island, with perhaps a few people outside of it knowing. In any case, let's dig out the treasure buried by this poor ghost's cheap father to see if it's true or not. Practice makes perfect. Do what you say.... Sigh, if only this useless system of mine also had an inventory; then it would be perfect for treasure hunting. Otherwise, you always have to rely on others to carry your treasures from one place to another, which is obviously not a good thing for my poor life."
Just as Ed was complaining and picking up the normal-sized shovel by the door, suddenly—as if another system keyword had been triggered by him—a 30-inch-wide, transparent blue window appeared before his dumbfounded face. It contained about a hundred square-shaped boxes, with a small arrow in the bottom right corner indicating the next page.