Looking at Lily the white mouse, who was beaming with pride, Charles felt quite surprised. “You can operate the deck cannon?”

  He had assumed it was the chief engineer, James, who had manned the cannon, but it turned out to be Lily.

  “I operated it with my friends! How about that? Aren’t we impressive?” Lily squeaked, and a whole swarm of brown mice swarmed onto Charles's bed.

  Seeing the bed covered with mice made Charles feel quite uneasy. “Get them all off! Just you go back; why did you bring all these mice?”

  “I promised them I’d invite them over to my place for my mom’s sweet fish soup. I can’t go back on my word!” Lily insisted, standing her ground.

  Charles tried to appease Lily before turning to the second mate, Krona.

  The red-haired youth seemed to know what Charles was going to ask and spoke up, “Don’t worry, Captain. We’ve compared notes; no one is over or under.”

  “That's good, that’s good…”

  Once the danger had passed, a wave of intense drowsiness washed over him. The wounds on his body and the exhaustion from running made Charles's body send out a warning.

  “Don’t let your guard down; get us back on a safe course as soon as possible. Everyone out, I’m a bit tired.”

  Before anyone could leave the room, Charles’s eyelids drooped, and he slipped into unconsciousness.

  When he awoke, he had no idea how much time had passed.

  “I should get a pocket watch.”

  Now fully alert, Charles didn’t get out of bed right away. Leaning against the pillow, a faint smile crept onto his face—a long-lost expression.

  He had been worried about one thing: whether he was still on Earth. Even if he made it to the surface, would he ever return?

  But 1068's words had confirmed one thing: the outside world had a sun, and where there’s a sun, there must be Earth. There was a good chance his home was still there.

  Just as Charles was about to get out of bed, he noticed the artifacts he had retrieved from the Third Laboratory piled on the cabinet.

  Seeing these items stirred something in Charles.

  Though he had gone through everything there himself, he now felt strangely alienated from that version of himself. Back then, the thought of so many artifacts made him feel like a cat scratching at something. He had instinctively gone to steal them, completely unaware of how dangerous that act was.

  But looking at those artifacts now, Charles felt a sense of relief. He had been lucky to come away with so many items, having only paid for them with his injuries. It was undoubtedly a worthwhile trade.

  Charles began to carefully examine the few items he had brought back:

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  - A rusted knife covered in iron rust.

  - A feather quill as thick as a forearm.

  - A pyramid-shaped amethyst crystal.

  - Plus the silver ring in his hand, woven from tentacles.

  There were four artifacts in total. They all looked extraordinary, but Charles hesitated to test them. After all, he had lost some of the notebooks during his encounter with the leeches, and others had been ruined by seawater when he jumped into the sea.

  Now, only two items remained in the information booklet, one of which was the ring on his hand.

  “Project No.: 168”

  “Project Name: Tentacle Ring”

  “Description: 168 is a ring made of 925 silver, shaped into three tentacles resembling those of an octopus. Discovered by Dr. Tina during her vacation in a jewelry store in New Jersey [Data Deleted].”

  “Appendix 1: Due to Dr. Tina detecting its anomalies and reporting it immediately, the Foundation decided to contain 168 directly. The project’s anomalous description will be included in Appendix 2 in interview record format.”

  “Appendix 2:”

  “Dr. Tina, could you tell us how you discovered 168?”

  “My husband took me to pick out a wedding ring. The moment I saw it, I put it on. It wasn’t until I returned to my apartment that I realized something was off. I started to develop a special ability.”

  “What kind of special ability?”

  “Uh… my hand can turn into three tentacles that others can’t see. It feels very strange, almost as if the tentacles are naturally a part of my hand.”

  “I know what you’re going to ask next: the grip strength of the tentacles is enormous, roughly equivalent to that of two adult males, and they are very elastic, extending up to 5 meters. As for the negative anomalies, the ring tends to tempt humans to put it on subconsciously, and it gets tighter over time, requiring periodic removal to loosen it.”

  “Is it really that simple?”

  “Yeah, it’s really that simple. It’s just a very simple little thing. If only other projects were as well-behaved as this one. As for 1068, it’s manageable as long as there’s enough food; it won’t cause trouble. But 641 is a real headache.”

  “Oh, Tina, I’ve heard of that one; it’s indeed tough to deal with. If it ever breaches containment, the entire island’s population might be assimilated. But speaking of danger, it’s still not as bad as 134 that I’m in charge of—”

  “Ahem! Ladies, this is work time. Let’s save the chit-chat for after hours, please mind the occasion.”

  “Sorry, sorry.”

  22:41, interview concluded.

  “Transform into tentacles?” Charles pondered for a moment, then raised his hand. To his astonishment, he felt his fingers rapidly elongating and thickening, yet to the naked eye, his hand remained unchanged.

  Suddenly, a drawer on the distant table opened, and a bottle of liquor floated out, hovering in mid-air, creating a rather eerie scene.

  Charles began experimenting with the new artifact in the room. Various small objects floated up and down in the air.

  After getting familiar with this artifact, Charles decided to keep it for himself. In terms of offensive capabilities, it may not compare to the clown mask or even the black knife, but this item could be used cleverly, offering unexpected advantages.

  What excited Charles even more was that this little thing had the least side effects of any artifact he had encountered.

  He touched the ring thoughtfully before turning to another piece of paper, which contained the record for the purple pyramid.

  “Project No.: 434”

  “Project Name: Purple Pyramid”

  “Description: 434 is a crystal pyramid measuring 10 cm on each side. Due to the disturbances it caused, it was reported by the Shadow Island Police Department and transferred to the Foundation.”

  **Experiment 1:** “Have Subject 13 hold 434 and command him to silently repeat ‘I am powerful’ twice.”

  **Experiment Result:** The subject underwent a mutation, his physique proportionally increased, reaching a height of 2.5 meters, but his communicative ability significantly diminished, with intelligence dropping to 80.

  **Experiment 2:** “Have Subject 13 hold 434 and command him to silently repeat ‘I am powerful’ three times.”

  **Experiment Result:** The subject’s height increased by three meters, but intelligence dropped to 60.

  **Experiment 3:** “Have Subject 13 hold 434 and command him to silently repeat ‘I am powerful’ four times.”

  **Experiment Result:** The subject’s height rose to 4 meters, while intelligence fell to 40. Due to the subject’s low intelligence, he could not comprehend commands, and the experiment had to be terminated. The subject returned to normal 30 minutes after distancing himself from 434.