Chapter 13 Set sail, ███! Until the long, mournful sound of the flute, destiny…
Suddenly, countless pale hands reached out from the porthole, like snakes slithering through the drizzle, abruptly covering his mouth as he tried to scream. They swallowed them whole, pulled them into the ship, and devoured them.
More white hands emerged from the windows, dancing wildly under the dark clouds, devouring the panicked lambs into the tin monsters.
This scene was captured on Yan Bocheng's watch. Watching the hacker's teeth ache, well, the master is always right.
There might be something going on with Zhu Wen, as he wasn't answering Yan Bocheng's calls. Yan Bocheng couldn't control him, so he gathered information on the other players' movements, sent it to Zhu Wen, and then quickly entered Right Port.
Players enter the right port, and everyone else boards the ship. Equipment and doors and windows are closed one after another, and the left port becomes empty again. The eerie robotic fish turns off the lights, and the terminal building is like a bloodless torso, cold and hollow.
As the only living thing in Zuogang at this moment, Xue Chao looked out the window at the enormous creature through all the nearby surveillance cameras.
The enormous cruise ship was right in his sight; the gangway retracted, and the metal sheeting separated the two worlds inside and outside the ship.
But it seemed as if he could see through rows of dark, countless portholes a gaunt face, with sunken eyes, swallowed by shadows, like two hollowed-out bloody holes. The "ghosts" who had just boarded the ship were all looking at him, like prisoners locked in the prison of the night.
There were fellow passengers, two players, and many more faces whose identities and how long they had been lost were unknown. Many of them were children who had long since become one with the cruise ship.
Until the long whistle sounded, the Destiny slowly departed from the harbor.
The approach bridge roared, detached from the coast, raised its head to the sky, and slowly retracted. Giant Harbor was now truly an isolated island. The cruise ship sailed away and soon disappeared into the sea in the drizzle. The watch signals of the players boarding the ship and heading to Right Harbor disappeared one after another.
The clock struck zero, and the twelve o'clock bells echoed throughout the terminal, like the end of Cinderella's dream ball and the return to harsh reality.
[Player: 6/8]
Right Port, Pu Fengchun observed from outside Terminal 2: "Any other clues about the person you're looking for?"
Xue Chao thought for a moment, seemingly serious, before slowly saying, "He smokes."
Aside from avoiding Zhu Wen's trap, another reason he chose Pu Fengchun as the "prediction point" was to use Pu Fengchun's experience to find the shop, then use the shop to find clues, arm himself, and then turn his fabricated self into reality.
For players without distinctive skills and styles, and for disabled streamers who can't go anywhere, finding shops is of paramount importance.
So Xue Chao said, "At that time, the people around him complained to him that the store did not have the cigarettes he wanted and that he had to find his own. He was very impatient and cursed, 'They sell a bunch of random junk, and the real stuff is not presentable at all.'"
Pu Songying's attention was indeed drawn to another word: "...a shop? Let's find that shop first, maybe there will be some clues."
Popularity rating: 19
There are 11 points left to unlock the "Shop," so keep up the good work!
"It's not the right time yet," Xue Chao said calmly. "Wait for my signal."
Let him unlock the store first.
*
The exterior size of Terminal 2 at Right Harbour is the same as that of Terminal 1, but the interior decoration is completely different.
Right Harbour is more like a luxury cruise ship in a movie, with an elegant and gorgeous classical European style, golden walls that look like they are made of gold, soft pure wool red carpets, carvings and classical oil paintings everywhere, and exquisite giant crystal chandeliers that look like an inextinguishable sacred flame hanging above their heads, dazzling and mesmerizing.
Most of the ornaments and jewelry are made of gold, and that luxurious luster overshadows all the shapes and designs, radiating the inherent brilliance of the material.
There were more people than in Zuogang. The guards in uniform patrolled back and forth. They were all burly and thick-shouldered, with pale faces and wide-set eyes. Although their facial features were the same, they always gave people an indescribable sense of "strangeness". They had already arrested several players.
Just by standing at the entrance of the sky tunnel on the third floor, you can hear the revelry on the second floor, as if a banquet is in progress.
Rather than crossing space, they seem to have crossed a period of time, being driven back a hundred years, from desolation to prosperity in the blink of an eye, making people wonder if there really were two ports, or if there was only one from the beginning, which just folded into another version of itself in time and space.
Zhu Wen was the first to enter the other side of the pipe and the only one who hadn't entered the right port yet. He jumped back up to the top of the pipe and tapped his earpiece in the rain: "Siri, my hacker has left. Why aren't you saying anything? Is this your shy personality?"
"At your service, sir," Xue Chao, who had been observing him from behind the camera and waiting for a long time, replied.
Zhu Wen's smile brightened even more. The fact that he didn't ask when the other man had discovered it meant he had also been waiting for this moment of confrontation. As if he hadn't stolen the earphones, he spoke familiarly, "I thought you'd already gone to Yougang. My name is Zhu Wen, what's yours?"
“You can call me 'J'.”
"It sounds better than Siri. If we swap names, we'll be friends." Zhu Wen threw out a childish question, yet one more malicious than a child's: "Between me and that other girl, who do you like more?"
"Sister? I only heard you call a lady 'Auntie'."
"Doesn't this make me look polite?"
"So I can understand that you also need my help?"
Zhu Wen laughed heartily: "It should be that you are of no use to me. I can bring you more benefits than that woman, but you've come out on top. Beg me properly."
Xue Chao wasn't angry at all and readily agreed: "You're very confident, so I suggest you blend in with them—in a game of cat and mouse, confident people tend to prefer being the cat, right?"
"Wow, this doesn't sound like something a stereotypical AI would say. I'm really impressed with you." Zhu Wen spread his arms wide and gestured exaggeratedly. "But those guards are wider than gorillas."
“You may have misunderstood me. To blend in with them, you don’t necessarily have to pretend to be one of them—you can deliberately let them catch you.”
Zhu Wen raised an eyebrow: "I thought you'd keep up the act longer, and now you're trying to sabotage me?"
Xue Chao chuckled: "Didn't your hacker infiltrate the system and see the clues on the desk in the third-floor office?"
"You mean 'investigator's file'?"
The third floor resembled an abandoned, hidden office, containing eight fresh investigator files—the files of eight players.
However, it lacks in-depth content, only providing basic information such as name, height, weight, and birthday, along with a headshot and perhaps a hobby. It's rather perfunctory, resembling a profile on a dating app.
Since this isn't a role-playing type of instance, the most useful information after reading through the entire file is the title "Investigator," which reveals the player's "identity" for this mission.
They are not travelers or blood slaves; they are likely wanted criminals trying to escape to distant lands, or agents sent by some force to investigate Giant Harbor.
The files were deliberately placed in Zuogang as a hint to them.
So what are the players here to investigate?
Xue Chao: "The guards are 'relaxed' because they are all wearing life jackets inside, which is the garbage on the harbor side... If you look at them again, haven't you noticed that they are constantly calling out numbers?"
Each team of guards consists of no more than ten people, each equipped with a dark green life jacket with special protective measures. The movement routes are fixed, with some routes intersecting with others, but when all teams return to the main hall, they stop and count off.
Zhu Wen noticed this, and he also discovered that one of the patrol teams was missing a person after returning from the third floor. They found out after counting, but they were not surprised at all. They just uneasily noted it down and continued their patrol as if nothing had happened.
Xue Chao concluded: "People frequently go missing in Yougang."
Investigators can come to investigate "disappearances".
Zhu Wen retorted: "But they have no other measures, they just follow the steps out of fear, and then wait for someone to disappear inexplicably again, and there is another 'garbage bag' on the harbor."
"It means they know why, or have some suspicion, but they're keeping it a secret. It could be someone of authority like a superior, or... something with a bit of evil influence, or maybe both." Xue Chao flattered him somewhat half-heartedly. "You're different from the others. You were the one who broke through the forbidden gate and found Right Port first. You're the most qualified to meet the client who invited you here. That person obviously has a certain amount of influence in Right Port."
Zhu Wen picked up where he left off: "Whether or not it's an investigation into the 'disappearance,' this is a good pledge of allegiance. Maybe we can even get ahead of others in accessing information about the core of Right Harbor and become a 'member' of Right Harbor."
Xue Chao said lazily, "The reason you didn't go in is because you didn't want to be chased and beaten like a rat running around."
That was undeniably provocative, but he hit the nail on the head. The arrogant brat fell silent for a second, then cheerfully changed the subject: "You're much more interesting than my hacker. I'm going to take you away after all this is over!"
Xue Chao didn't stand on ceremony with him: "If you need, I can temporarily take over the role of 'Mr. Hacker' and use my watch to compile information for you."
[“J” has sent a “Bluetooth connection request” to your device. Do you agree?]
【whether】
Zhu Wen agreed without hesitation.
"【Zhu Wen】Damn it, don't agree!"
"[Zhu Wen] This plot development looks familiar; I just watched it from the camera next door (doge)."
"【Zhu Wen】You've got your hands on the little jellyfish! I'm reporting this AI for being unfaithful!"
"So, is this a case of putting aside past grievances and pursuing a win-win cooperation?"
"[Zhu Wen] The person upstairs is so naive. Those two brats clearly have their own ulterior motives..."
Zhu Wen was escorted by two guards, one on each side, but because he was not tall, only reaching the guards' chests, his posture was a bit awkward.
He pursed his lips in dissatisfaction. As he passed Sandro Botticelli's painting "Primavera," Xue Chao looked through his watch and saw a hideous scratch on the face of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, splitting the goddess's head in two, making no attempt to conceal his malice.
The guards occasionally changed shifts, and I overheard them saying that of the few people who broke in from Zuogang, two had already been caught. One of them, a guy with glasses, was caught after only a few steps and almost fainted on the spot. The other one was muttering something about "cat" like a ghost, which frightened the VIPs on the second floor, so he was locked in the dungeon. The rest are still being pursued.
Zhu Wen was indeed treated differently. The road was long, and by the time he reached the magnificent carved statue of the Virgin Mary, he was almost asleep.
Knock knock.
"Sir, Zuogang is closed, and the forbidden gate is under repair. We have caught the criminal who damaged the forbidden gate and brought him to see you."
"Ha, sir." Zhu Wen secretly rolled his eyes. What a blatant attempt to claim credit; he was the one who walked right into the trap.
No one responded. The door opened a crack on its own, letting in only a sliver of light through the small window. It was pitch black inside. The guard pushed Zhu Wen inside and locked the door without a second thought.
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