Oh my god, Nova’s Talent actually advances just by constantly devouring negative status energy.

Unlike Nova’s shock, Kevin knew exactly what this Talent mutation meant.

In his past life, this phenomenon was called Talent advancement.

Every Survivor could keep pushing their Talent limits until they met a certain condition, which would trigger it to advance and make them stronger.

But the ways to develop Talents were different, and everyone had their own unique path.

So, there were almost no shortcuts to advancing a Talent. You had to figure it out yourself through trial and error.

Even if two Survivors had the exact same Talent, they couldn’t really copy each other’s methods to advance it.

But Kevin was different.

Nova’s Talent had advanced. That meant Kevin had advanced too, and even further.

Thinking of this, Kevin gave Nova a tight hug and kissed her red lips. "Good job tonight," he said.

Then Kevin turned to the girls who were spying on them, flashed a grin, and said, "Get some good rest. We’ll hand out the loot tomorrow morning."

"We still have to split the loot?" Celula heard that and looked totally confused.

Monchhichi, standing next to her, was just as puzzled. "Kevin, didn’t you already give all the loot to Luna and Amelia tonight?"

Kevin smiled at that. "That’s what they earned. But you guys will get the loot I hand out personally. Just wait and see."

With that, Kevin ignored everyone else and pulled Nova straight toward the captain’s cabin.

Nova followed Kevin, her heart racing. She glanced nervously at his back and said, "You’re not going to rush me, right? I’m not ready yet."

Kevin leaned close to Nova’s ear and whispered, "I want to test your throat. I know it’s a hundred times more flexible and soft than a normal person’s."

Nova shot him a look.

The door latch clicked. She stepped inside in her high heels, following Kevin into the captain’s cabin.

The next morning.

The familiar system chime rang out as usual, echoing in every Survivor’s ears.

Whether Kevin was fast asleep, or Celula and Monchhichi who stayed up all night, a series of messages popped up in front of everyone at once.

[Congratulations to Survivor "Amelia" for killing the Commander-level Eldritch Entity, "Mist Phantom King·Haaland". Amelia receives: 1x B-Tier Random Eldritch Artifact Chest, 1x B-Tier Random Weapon Chest, 1x B-Tier Random Equipment Chest. All Survivors receive: 1x Eldritch Merchant Summon Token.]

[Congratulations to Survivor "Luna·Cassabreya" for killing a total of 3 Elite Eldritch and 3,721 Normal Eldritch, meeting the horror sea’s threshold. The horror sea will now spawn random Eldritch merchants to roam the area. Survivors can trade their supplies with them.]

[Survivor Combat Ranking now open. The list updates every morning and tracks combat records from the past three days. Calculating...]

[Calculation complete. Announcing the top ten now.]

[Luna·Cassabreya, ... ranked first.]

[Amelia, ... ranked second.]

[Toti, ... ranked third.]

[...]

[Raphael, ... ranked tenth.]

[Congratulations to all Survivors on the list. The top ten will receive a fifteen-inch deluxe pizza, a 500ml bottle of Sangria, a pregnancy test...]

This time, the broadcast was unusually long.

Even after the last sound faded, many people were still completely stunned.

The world chat, which should have been buzzing with activity, was unusually quiet right now. Not a single person spoke.

About two minutes later, the Survivors finally started discussing it like crazy.

"What exactly happened last night? That woman named Luna was clearly out of the top ten on the combat leaderboard yesterday, so how did she kill over three thousand Eldritch Entities in one night? Did she raid their lair?"

"Oh my god! And Amelia, she’s seriously terrifying! She actually killed a Commander-level Eldritch Entity! I totally worship her! I want to join her fleet! Can someone put me in touch? I’d even be her dog!"

"Want to know the inside scoop? I’ll tell you. Last night around a deserted island, twenty fleets teamed up to corner that Commander-level Eldritch Entity. The fight was so brutal that the whole sea turned red with blood. A modern frigate even got completely wiped out. In the end, they only barely won when a Two-Masted Sloop rammed it and they both went down together."

"My god, that sounds absolutely brutal."

"Wait, did we forget something? Where did Kevin, who was in first place, go?"

The Survivors were still amazed by Luna and Amelia’s kills from last night, but once someone pointed out that Kevin was gone from the list, they all fell silent.

It wasn’t just Kevin. Even Survivors like Keston and Justin, who used to safely hold the top three spots, had completely disappeared from the leaderboard.

Now, almost everyone left on the list were the ones who joined the hunt for the King of Mist Phantoms last night.

Seeing the three top survivors, who used to be praised by everyone, drop off the list made it hard for people to accept at first.

Soon, doubting voices started to pop up.

"I thought we humans were going to rely on Kevin to lead us out of this scary ocean. Looks like I was too naive."

"Exactly. It’s way too early to judge how strong a Survivor really is. The Eldritch arrival only happened a few days ago."

"We should wait at least a month or two. That’s when we’ll really see who the strongest humans are."

"Damn! If someone can actually beat my idol, does that mean I can do it too if I just work hard? Kevin isn’t completely out of reach. I’m going to beat him!"

"Beat Kevin!"

"Beat Keston!"

"Beat Justin!"

Suddenly, Survivors started shouting in the world chat, openly challenging Kevin, Keston, and others who used to top the combat list.

Kevin read these comments and didn’t take them to heart at all.

Because letting Amelia kill the King of Mist Phantoms was exactly his plan all along.

Compared to the empty title of being number one on the leaderboard, Kevin wanted real rewards.

Right now, Kevin’s system inventory was full of over thirty B-Tier chests, all returned as rewards by Amelia.

If it weren’t for the fact that only he could open these chests himself, Kevin was even tempted to have Nova open them for him.

Just thinking about those thirty chests instantly turning into over 450 B-Tier treasures made him thrilled.

But while Kevin was looking completely chill, Justin was having a full meltdown on his yacht. "Damn it! Where the hell did Luna and Amelia come from? And what about Toti and Raphael? How did they all jump past me at the same time? I’m not accepting this! I’m not!"

Just as Justin was falling apart, the bodyguard beside him, along with Bella and Joseph, all looked pretty crushed too.

Last night, to help Justin rack up points, they had thrown every trick they had at it.

They even let him take all the kills for themselves, dumping every single Eldritch Entity onto Justin. But even with all that, he still didn’t crack the top ten.

It pissed them off, sure. But not because of the ranking. It was because they were starving for a damn pizza.

After years of big steaks, seafood dinners, and all that fancy food, these rich folks had been going hungry on the Horror Sea for two full days.

Caviar might be fancy, but it won’t fill your stomach. Plus, they’d already licked that tin can clean yesterday.

In the cockpit, Bella stumbled over to the window. After days of empty stomachs, her blood sugar finally crashed.

Desperate and out of options, she stuck her hand out the porthole and yanked a thick Ocular Barnacle off the glass.

"I never thought I’d end up eating something this disgusting. A proper society lady like me... how did I get here?"

Before she could change her mind, Bella squeezed her eyes shut and shoved the barnacle into her mouth.

A foul, fishy stench filled her mouth. Bella immediately gagged, spat out a chunk of slimy tissue, and threw up. Tears and snot ran down her face as she heaved.

Her makeup was completely ruined. She stared wildly at the floating system screen, teeth clenched. "Kevin... I’m going to find you. I was so wrong."

Unlike the others, Bella knew exactly who was sailing on Kevin’s ship.

So when she saw Luna and Amelia sitting at one and two on the leaderboard, Bella’s stomach dropped. She immediately regretted it.

"If I’d just stayed with Kevin, I’d be number one right now. The pizza, the Sangria... it all should have been mine," Bella muttered through gritted teeth, silently crying.

She kept her voice low, terrified that Joseph and Justin would hear her.

After all, starving people will do anything.

Right now, they were at least scraping by on barnacles.

But once those are gone? She didn’t even want to think about what would happen next.

Shaking, Bella forced herself up and bit her lip as she opened Stephanie’s private chat.

Before Bella could even type a word, Stephanie dropped a photo straight into the chat.

The picture showed Kevin sitting at the head of the table, surrounded by a bunch of glamorous girls. A pair of twins were chilling in the corner.

There were two fifteen-inch pizzas, two steaming plates of A5 Wagyu, two full boxes of jet-black caviar, and rows of Holy Spring water bottles that looked like they were being drunk like tap water.

Looking at all of that just broke Bella completely.