Chapter 11 Let's Set Sail, ███! "We must come from behind..."
Zhu Wen bent down and swept the dart, which hit the pursuing robot. He nimbly slipped into the pipe like a cat. Pu Fengchun's figure had already disappeared. His eyes turned and he surveyed the entire passage.
"【Pu Fengchun】It's that AI again! It's tripped me up twice already!"
"【Pu Fengchun】With the vengeful heart of a little jellyfish, you are about to watch 'Electronic AI Turns into Electronic Pickled Mustard Tuber'."
"【Pu Fengchun】No way, I really like this NPC, a chaotic neutral AI, who understands prprpr?"
"You've gone too far! We haven't even boarded the ship yet!" Yan Bocheng said urgently from the other end of the watch. "All the firepower on the map is on you! Is this how you used to play tanky?!"
"Wouldn't you all be free if I were on your side? Hmph, this building is completely irrelevant. It doesn't matter if it sinks. The amusement park isn't here." Zhu Wen said bluntly, "You want to stay in the newbie village until the end of the dungeon? Idiot."
"I'm just helping you create chaos so we can board the ship sooner!"
Zhu Wen glanced sideways. The boarding entrance was just a stone's throw away. The giant cruise ship outside the pipe looked like an iron monster pulled from the deep sea, rusty and mottled, like an ancient ghost that had wandered the sea for thousands of years, an empty blood tank.
He tilted his head: "Wait a minute."
"Wait my ass... wait, ancestor, what's your doubt? Do you think there's something wrong with the Destiny?" Being sent by the guild to serve this ancestor, Yan Bocheng wasn't entirely stupid. He frantically typed on the keyboard, searching the system records. "All the Destiny's departure and arrival records are pretty much what you're thinking. The timing is very fixed, once a month, always on a rainy day, the last voyage at midnight, and the cruise port won't resume operations until sunrise the next day. But the records only go back a year at most."
Zhu Wen: "A year ago was exactly when the fog appeared, and Right Port was also closed at that time."
"That can only mean that the appearance of the fog has affected a lot of things. The Destiny, Left Port, Right Port, or maybe there's something else in the sea. Don't forget that our main mission is called 'Setting Sail'..."
"Why can't 'many things' have a cause-and-effect logic?" Zhu Wen mocked. "After searching for so long, and even infiltrating the Left Port system, haven't you thought about why there are no clues related to the fog here besides the fact that there is fog itself? Because the Destiny has always been docked at the Right Port until the fog appeared, and the Right Port was therefore 'abandoned' before it was moved to the Left Port. The Left Port is just a substitute for the Right Port or a testing ground—the approach bridge is not even connected to the Right Port; that place has been deliberately isolated."
If the "Mist" is the core of the instance, then the focus is not on the "monthly" Fate Ship, but on the ever-silent Right Harbor.
Yan Bocheng didn't listen at all: "Are you nitpicking? Damn it, those dogs can't find you and are chasing me! Hurry up, you little ancestor, I'm a person with a red name too!"
Zhu Wen immediately lost interest, feeling that discussing the way of thinking that Homo sapiens should have with primitive people was already an early sign of being infected by idiots. He read aloud, "Then you should pay more attention to other 'dognip,' they are probably players too. Good luck!"
"Go for it, you big jerk!"
"Beep—" After hanging up the communication, Zhu Wen saw a long-haired figure running wildly across the arc through the giant loop pipe. He turned away from the boarding entrance of the Destiny and chased after the crowd.
*
"There is a dead end ahead."
Xue Chao's sudden reminder caused the speeding woman to stop abruptly, forgetting to catch her breath. Her long hair, like a swaying duckweed, was instantly knocked to the ground by the torrential rain, slapping against her back, which was soaked with cold sweat.
At the end of ten meters away is a locked metal door—the only intersection of the left and right harbors.
She then realized where she had ended up, and the artificial intelligence hadn't given her any warnings from the beginning, as if it had been waiting for her to arrive at this place.
"Now, please listen to me," Xue Chao said with a mischievous smile. "We have to 'die' once in front of the guests coming from behind us."
The boy walked around the corner and stood in the dimly lit pipe, his hood covering his head. The faint light of the distant lighthouse vaguely outlined his petite, dark silhouette, like a death god lurking in the night.
"Aren't you going to run away?" Death's voice was utterly naive.
Being targeted by such a child is even more terrifying than being surrounded by hyenas. Seventh place—she felt a sudden, absurd sense of honor, and then a feeling that she was just worrying unnecessarily.
She had heard that Zhu Wen grew up in the bad soil of the game, pampered by the guild leader like a foster father. The brat got whatever he wanted, and unless he was interested, he was too lazy to play too much tricks on the fools. He would play with them like toys occasionally. Why would she be worth his trouble to retaliate?
I was just annoyed to get stung by an insect, so I just stomped on it and killed it.
So her pounding heart returned to the steady crowd of ordinary people, and she said calmly, "As you can see, it's a dead end."
"Oh, I know that, it's a metaphor. Are you talking about yourself, Auntie?"
"what you up to?"
"Turning the tables on me? Didn't you just cut my thread?" Zhu Wen lifted one side of his hood, revealing a smiling eye. "I'm not interested in you anymore. Give me the toy in your ear."
"You'll let me go if you give it to me?"
“By Pinocchio, in the world of children, lying makes your nose grow longer.” Zhu Wen noticed her softening expression and readily agreed, stepping closer and forcefully lifting Pu Fengchun’s wrist. “Leave it to me, huh? But it’s not what you expected, is it? The real door.”
"What?"
Suddenly, a shadow fell on the left. Pu Fengchun sensed danger and broke free from his hand, retreating hastily. A person climbed up from under the only opaque floor of the pipe. It was one of the players who had followed Zhu Wen into the ticket hall. He raised his knife and pierced the glass on both sides. Shards flew everywhere, and rain poured in, like a shower of sparkling rain, exploding like white fireworks.
The barriers between inside and outside were broken, and the cold wind, cold rain, and the roar of the giant ship suddenly slammed into her ears, almost like an electric shock. Pu Fengchun tried to touch her earphones as if in pain, but the fishing line beat her to it, slashing through the broken fragments and accurately knocking her earphones out.
The stinging pain became a reality, and she instinctively dodged. The flash of the blade on the other side blocked her retreat on the right, and she suddenly lost her balance, falling straight out of the shattered hole on the left!
The air currents carrying rain slammed into her, and for a moment she almost drowned in the icy, fishy sea breeze. She couldn't open her eyes, her hands gripping the window frame tightly, dangling outside the pipes, with the bottomless sea below her.
The player with the knife stood guard beside Zhu Wen, his expression somewhat obsequious, as if he had just forced down not a person, but a leaf that had fallen from a branch. In the blink of an eye, he had obediently turned his knife to chop at the forbidden gate.
Zhu Wen's "camera" captured his heroic act just now, and he's probably still savoring the wonderful feeling of his contribution points steadily increasing. It's worth it to latch onto this big shot; not only can he get screen time, but he can also get clues from the big shot and open the door to the next level for him. Isn't that convenient for him too?
So the workers worked even harder, and before long, a crack appeared in the heavy metal door.
They came for the forbidden gate; Pu Fengchun was just a minor interlude. Even though he was still hanging outside the pipe, he was like a forgotten, invisible person.
Zhu Wenyan is a man of his word; he didn't kill her, but he also won't save her.
Pu Fengchun clung desperately to the pipe, but it was all in vain. When the metal door was breached by the player's special item, she could no longer hold on and fell. At that moment, she felt a sense of weightlessness as if the world was upside down. Death was just around the corner, and she didn't even have time to react to fear. She seemed to be trapped in a hazy space, about to be taken to the other side.
Death is light, as light as her life.
With a "plop," it vanished in an instant, like a firework.
The comments section instantly exploded with a bunch of viewers who had been waiting for this moment:
"Hilarious, this is supposed to be predicting camera positions?"
"I haven't seen such a ridiculous memorial tablet in ages. It reminds me of some boring newbie games, it's practically a garbage dump summit..."
"Little jellyfish: Your toy is fine, it'll be mine in the next second!"
"The host is still playing dead. Next time, open your eyes wide. Of course, if there is a next time."
"The jellyfish camera isn't even open yet, the treasure slot is gone, so there are no more camera slots in the room. Is the screen going to go black? With top ten players on the leaderboard, the screen is still going black. I haven't seen such a terrible host in a long time, hahaha..."
"Black screen countdown, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!"
Because of the treasured memorial tablet, a large number of viewers were initially turned away. Later, Zhu Wen's lack of effort turned away another group of fans. There are plenty of other live streams available, so why stay here and just watch? It's not too late to come back when Zhu Wen's camera is working properly.
But a group of viewers remained, of course, without any positive emotions, all harboring malice, just waiting for the host and the prediction camera to kick the bucket and unleash their grievances, they had already prepared what to say, purely for venting their anger and to have some fun.
Now that the time has come, they've all shown off their special skills one by one, and the comment section is erupting in a frenzy of mockery.
The mockery also generates buzz, and the popularity has surged significantly since it was barely alive. The mockery effect is much stronger. If someone really has low mental fortitude, they might even be tempted to commit seppuku.
Zhu Wen thought so too, and chuckled proudly. What kind of trash are they? He put on his headphones and led the two players through the dilapidated forbidden gate into the Right Port.
[Congratulations! Your contribution level has been met, and the camera position has been successfully activated!]
[You are the first player in this room, excluding the prediction camera position, to unlock the achievement "Born to Be the Focus"!]
Your performance has been included in the final settlement...
"Wuhu! Long time no see, everyone~" Even though he couldn't see the comments section, Zhu Wen still spread his arms and cheered like a bird in flight, as if to say hello.
"【Congratulations】Ahhh, it's finally bloomed! Hooray!"
"[Congratulatory Message] Double happiness! Titi, the family is back!"
"【Zhu Wen】It just so happened to be stuck right when the screen was about to go black. The host should be grateful, Lao Qi saved your life, haha."
Zhu Wen's camera position was finally revealed after much anticipation, and the timing was perfect. Not to mention the new viewers, those who were just settling for the predicted camera position quickly switched to the new position and joined the frenzy. In an instant, the popularity exceeded the level of Zhu Wen's usual broadcasts with the "treasure" position!
So no one noticed the warning sound that was swallowed up by the sea breeze:
"You have agreed to the [Full Access Request]. I will now take over the device," Xue Chao's voice came from the watch. "It's a pleasure to serve you again, ma'am."
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