Several players on the deck looked up at Zhou Zhou who was climbing up the mast.
“What is this doing?”
"Let's look at the scenery. The view up there is wider?"
"Maybe he's just bored and wants to move around."
"You don't understand. When I was up there before, the view was particularly good. Whether it was enjoying the breeze or looking at the sea, it was the best spot."
"Weren't you screaming for help up there? How could you still be in the mood to enjoy the scenery?"
“…”
“Hahahaha~”
The players did not notice the handkerchief on the sail and thought that Zhou Zhou might have been bored on the boat and went up to enjoy the scenery while chatting, joking and playing cards.
The handkerchief moved very slowly at first, but when Zhou Zhou climbed to the middle of the mast, the moving handkerchief seemed to sense the danger and suddenly sped up, running all the way to the top of the mast.
Zhou Zhou kept staring at the handkerchief. He felt as if the handkerchief had come alive and was moving up quite fast.
When the handkerchief ran to the top of the mast, Zhou Zhou was only two meters away from the top. He climbed up slowly, staring at the handkerchief intently.
The little handkerchief lay on the top, hesitated for a moment, and then suddenly jumped down, as if wanting to jump into the sea to escape Zhou Zhou's pursuit.
But less than two seconds after it jumped, it was caught by a hand.
Zhou Zhou held the mast with one hand and stretched out the other hand to catch the handkerchief who was about to jump into the sea. His timing was just right.
Without bothering to see what the handkerchief that was running around was, Zhou Zhou started to climb down the pole again. During the climb, he found that the handkerchief was struggling in his hand, so he tightened his hand a little.
Coming down from the mast, several players seemed to want to ask Zhou Zhou what he was doing climbing up there, so they all gathered around him.
Zhou Zhou was afraid that the handkerchief would fly away if he loosened his grip, so he wrapped the handkerchief with both hands and quietly opened a crack to look inside.
The players who were about to speak saw Zhou Zhou looking at a treasure and immediately became curious. They half-knelt down and looked inside. However, the gap between Zhou Zhou's hands was too small and they could not see anything.
Zhou Zhou only saw the struggling handkerchief through the gap, but the touch between his hands seemed wrong. In addition to the delicate touch of the silk handkerchief, there was another icy touch.
"What are you looking at?" The players who came over from other places on the deck were very confused. This group of people leaned over and looked at Zhou Zhou's clasped hands, as if they were looking at some treasure, with a cautious and curious look.
A player stood up and said seriously, "We don't know either."
Player: “…”
Don't know what to see here? Look at the air?
Zhou Zhou's lower hand slowly clenched into a fist and held the handkerchief. When he grabbed the handkerchief before jumping into the sea, he found that the weight was wrong. How heavy could a handkerchief be? There must be something else in here.
There is a full pile in my hand, soft and sticky, a bit similar to the touch of Ghost, but not as chewy. Zhou Zhou grabbed the corner of the handkerchief with his other hand and pulled it, and the things inside immediately appeared in front of everyone.
"Wow." A group of players exclaimed in amazement, and even Zhou Zhou couldn't help but open his eyes wide.
After taking off the handkerchief, he actually held an octopus in his hand. The octopus was pink all over, and had a pair of big eyes that were larger than the ordinary octopus's, and were black and moist. It was simply a cute Q-version little octopus cut out from a comic book. It feels icy cool to the touch, not at all greasy like octopus, but rather very dry.
"An octopus crawled onto the boat sometime ago. It looked pretty cute."
"It's so small, it's probably still a cub."
"What breed is this?"
Several grown men started to comment on the little octopus. There was nothing to do on the boat, so the octopus caught by Zhou Zhou became the focus of everyone's discussion.
Zhou Zhou held the octopus in one hand and looked at it carefully with a handkerchief in the other. It's so strange, why can this handkerchief be touched? He and Al had talked about it in the lounge. According to common sense, the handkerchief should also become something that players cannot touch, along with the cigar and lighter. But it turns out that the handkerchief can be touched just like before.
Why did this little octopus want to run away with the handkerchief? Did it treat the handkerchief as its nest?
The players were still discussing this super-good-looking little octopus until one of them suddenly said something that caused the discussion to go completely off track.
"It might taste good too if it looks this good."
“…”
"Grilled octopus is really delicious, but this one is so small, it's probably not even enough to fill the gaps between your teeth."
"It's better to stir-fry it. Although this octopus is small, it's fat. It can be cut into a small plate."
"Oh, I almost forgot. I bought some props and seasonings at the store. Although I don't have a pot, maybe I can barbecue on the boat."
"Hahaha, why did you bring seasoning to the dungeon? You really need to eat it. I guess one bite per person won't be enough."
"I have nothing to do anyway."
The topic suddenly turned from the appearance of the octopus to the eighteen ways to eat it. A player swallowed his saliva while listening to the discussion.
Zhou Zhou didn't know why the topic changed so quickly. He grabbed the octopus and blinked blankly.
This little octopus has a round head and short, fat tentacles. It looks very cute as a pink lump.
After struggling for a while, he found that he couldn't get free at all. He seemed to have accepted his fate and just lay in Zhou Zhou's hand, blinking his big eyes and not moving.
But when the players' topic gradually shifted to how to cut it most reasonably so that everyone could have a share, the little octopus's big eyes filled with tears and he suddenly raised his head.
Then he sprayed a mouthful of red ink at the players who were discussing excitedly.
Players: “…”
Even Zhou Zhou was not spared and had ink splashed on his face, and the faces of the others were covered in blood.
When more bored players gathered around, they were shocked to see this group of players with blood all over their faces. They thought they were being attacked.
"What's wrong with you!"
Players: “…It’s okay.”
"Does this look like you're okay? You're injured like this."
“…I’m really fine.”
The players began to wipe the red ink off their faces and bodies. Although the octopus was small, the amount of ink was quite large, and everyone around the octopus was sprayed all over by it.
Zhou Zhou put the handkerchief in his pocket and wiped the ink off his face with his hand. The color of the ink really looked like blood, and the smell was...
He put his finger under his nose and sniffed it. He looked at the little octopus in confusion and suddenly said to it, "I'll burn the little octopus later."
“Puff, puff, puff.”
The little octopus spit ink at Zhou Zhou again. This time Zhou Zhou was prepared and quickly moved his hand away, and the ink fell on the deck.
"Braised?"
"puff!"
“Stir-fry?”
"puff!"
“Put the little octopus back into the sea.”
There was no "poof" this time. The little octopus looked at Zhou Zhou expectantly with its big eyes, and its little tentacles moved around restlessly.
Sure enough, the little pink octopus could understand what they were saying.
Looking at this little octopus that kept puffing, the other players didn't dare to get closer. It was so small, but how could it spray so much? The ink it just sprayed must be bigger than its own volume.
Zhou Zhou grabbed the octopus and ran to Elvia, pulling him to the captain's lounge. The captain had woken up long ago and went to the control room, so there was no one else in the lounge.
After placing the little octopus on the table, Zhou Zhou's cheerful expression suddenly changed. He said to the little octopus that was trying to escape, "Write a few words on the table, and we'll let you go."
The little octopus used its eight chubby legs at the same time and ran quickly to the edge of the table, but was stopped by Elvia with a finger.
"Since you wrote something, I will not only let you go, but also return the handkerchief to you." Zhou Zhou took out the handkerchief from his pocket and waved it in front of the little octopus.
The little octopus stared at the handkerchief with its big, watery, black eyes, then stretched out a tentacle and put it in its mouth and sucked it.
The tip of the tentacle was immediately stained with red ink, and the little octopus wrote two words on the table with its tentacles.
Bad guy!
Not only is it written neatly, but it even has symbols added.
"Ah, it was you who wrote the logbook, and the words on the plate were also written by you." Zhou Zhou immediately recognized that the handwriting of the little octopus was exactly the same as the previous undated logbook, and the line of words at the bottom of the plate that fell in room 106 was also written by the little octopus.
The little octopus looked at Zhou Zhou angrily and pointed at the handkerchief with one tentacle.
Although Zhou Zhou still had many questions to ask the little octopus, he still returned the handkerchief to it as agreed.
After taking the handkerchief, the little octopus immediately held it on his head, leaving only his eyes exposed as he stared at Zhou Zhou and Elvia.
"Who taught it to write? It's quite beautiful. Why did it keep a logbook? When did it write it? Where is the logbook now?" Although he knew part of the truth, Zhou Zhou had more questions. Xiao Zhang clearly didn't want to cooperate, so Zhou Zhou could only ask Al who was standing beside him.
Elvia looked at the little octopus and thought, "Maybe the handkerchief didn't originally belong to the captain, but to this octopus. After we picked it up, it secretly came back to look for the handkerchief. The message on the plate might also be a warning to you not to touch things on the ship."
Zhou Zhou stared at Alvia for a while, then turned to the little octopus and asked, "Is that so?"
The little octopus nodded, hiding in his handkerchief.
Elvia: "The logbook might have been written in the captain's style. If you don't write the date, it's probably because you don't know the date."
The little octopus hid himself deeper into the handkerchief, seeming a little embarrassed.
"You are really amazing." After listening to Elvia's analysis, Zhou Zhou really felt that this little octopus was amazing. Not only could it write, but it could also keep a navigation log. He couldn't even understand what the various data in it meant.
The little octopus understood the compliment and waved its tentacles hidden in the handkerchief happily.
After figuring out the secrets of the handkerchief and the logbook, Zhou Zhou became more interested in the octopus, but he had promised to let it go before.
"Would you like to stay on the boat with us?" Zhou Zhou invited sincerely.
The little octopus shook its head wildly. It heard those people wanting to eat it, stir-fry, slice it, or grill it. It was so scary here and it wanted to go back to the sea.
Zhou Zhou came to the side of the boat holding the little octopus in his hand. The little octopus grabbed the handkerchief with its two tentacles and wrapped it around itself. It looked back at Zhou Zhou, rolled his thumb with one tentacle, then climbed over his palm and crawled onto the deck along Zhou Zhou's body.
"You're not leaving?" Zhou Zhou asked in surprise.
The little octopus held the handkerchief and looked back at Zhou Zhou, then continued to climb forward, all the way to the mast and returned to the top of the mast.
Then it jumped, and the small handkerchief held up a parachute in the wind. The little octopus grabbed the handkerchief parachute and slowly floated into the sea.
Zhou Zhou: “…”
Afterwards, Zhou Zhou looked at the side of the boat for a long time, trying to see if he could find the location of the little octopus. Unfortunately, the little octopus jumped into the sea and never came out again. The ship was moving forward quickly under the leadership of the captain, so naturally he could not see anything.
It was getting dark, and unlike the violent storm last night, tonight was very calm. Countless stars were twinkling in the sky, and a cool sea breeze swept across the ship. Finding that such a temperature would not cause a decrease in health points, the players lay on the shabby deck and looked at the stars.
It was not until late at night and the wind gradually grew stronger that we returned to the captain's lounge. The captain was still in the wheelhouse and had not come back. All the players stayed in the lounge, waiting for the third day to arrive.
In the middle of the night, the ship suddenly shook violently, waking up the sleepy players.
Everyone rushed out of the lounge, ignoring the strong wind outside, and looked towards the sea.
Although there was a bright crescent moon in the sky, they could only see the sea surface rising and falling. Everyone was confused as to what was happening.
The passengers on the ship also noticed something was wrong and rushed out of their cabins, screaming and running away. Although the players could not hear their screams, the expressions of fear on their faces were obvious.
Zhou Zhou and Elvia looked towards the sea and saw that in the distance, a ship twice as large as the brig was heading towards them. Its target was very clear, which was the ship they were on.
Moreover, there were many gun muzzles on the sides of the enemy's ship, which clearly showed that they had bad intentions.
As the two men watched, the enemy's shells landed on the sea not far from them, splashing water several meters high. The ship was shaking violently due to the uneasy sea surface.
Although the captain tried hard to change direction to get rid of the other ship, the other ship was larger and faster and caught up with this ship soon.
"Look, there's a ship attacking us!" The player finally found the ship.
Everyone on the ship was holding a knife or a gun, with excited and ferocious expressions, which formed a sharp contrast with the panicked passengers on the ship.
"That's a pirate ship." Doreen said calmly.
"What should we do?"
"Don't be afraid, I'm here." A player looked very relaxed. He raised his hand to summon his particle cannon. It had been an hour since the last time he used it. Let's see how he can sink this pirate ship.
The player stands on the side of the ship, closest to the pirate ship, and sets up the particle cannon. The blue light particles immediately condense and shoot a blue beam of light toward the side of the pirate ship.
This beam of light is particularly conspicuous in the dark night, like a blue ribbon scattered among the stars, gradually extending into the distance until it disappears.
Before the smug smile on the player's face faded, he noticed something unusual.
The pirate ship was still intact and was still firing at us.
"No, my particle cannon is useless. Do they have any most advanced defensive weapons?" the player said in shock.
Doreen covered her forehead and sighed, are these players really not here to make people laugh?
"That ship is just like the passengers on our ship, visible but intangible. There is nothing we can do but watch here." Elvia said in a cold voice.
The sailors took out several small boats from the warehouse and helped the passengers on the ship escape, but the small boats were hit by pirate ships before they could run far.
The two ships were getting closer and closer, and everyone could only watch as the pirates boarded the ships and looted various items on the ships. Water, food, and treasures were carried out box by box, and the remaining people on the ship all died.
They could only watch such a scene from the sidelines and could do nothing. Even if they wanted to beat up the pirates, they would only encounter air.
The players were in a heavy mood. There was no longer the atmosphere of slacking off and chatting as before. They all watched with serious expressions.
The bodies of the passengers, sailors and captain were all thrown into the sea. After looting everything on the ship, the pirates set a fire and the wooden sailboat soon caught fire.
The players had no way to intervene in the previous events. It was like they were watching a documentary and could only be spectators, unable to change history at all.
When the ship was set on fire, half of the wooden hull was quickly burned, and the ship continued to tilt and collapse.
The ship is sinking.
"I saw that there are still a few spare boats in the warehouse that have not been taken away. Let's hurry up and leave here on the boats." The players shouted, then ran to the stern of the ship, worked together to take out the boats and threw them into the sea.
"There are two boats in total, which is barely enough for us."
A player said this as he tried to jump into the sea, but when he stood on the edge of the boat, he couldn't jump down.
Starting from the hull, the ship seemed to be covered by a transparent barrier. The small boat could leave smoothly, but they couldn't get out.
The other players were anxious and tried to find a way to leave the ship, but after trying everywhere and using all kinds of props, they still couldn't leave. They were trapped on the ship.
"What should we do now?" The players were worried and anxious. They didn't expect that the final way they would be eliminated would be to sink to the bottom of the sea with the ship.
The ship was sinking faster and faster, and the players could only lean towards the stern, but the stern gradually sank into the sea.
When the first player and his boat were about to sink into the sea, everyone took a deep breath, hoping to live a little longer, but their idea was in vain.
The effect of the barrier continues. Although half of the ship was burned, the existence of the barrier is equivalent to putting them in a glass bottle with air inside.
Everyone no longer had to hold their breath and immediately breathed a sigh of relief, as they had thought they were really going to drown.
The hull continued to sink, and they could also see the scenery of the surrounding sea. If they had not just seen the tragic situation on the ship and were not in the mood to take in the various fish swimming around and the strange marine creatures, they would definitely take a good look at them.
"Speaking of which, where exactly is this ship going to sink? We have been sinking for more than ten minutes."
one player asked, holding a lantern.
The seabed became deeper and deeper, and the light became darker and darker, until finally nothing could be seen. The players all took out their own lighting tools. Although they would not be drowned by the sea water, the silent and dark seabed did make people feel uneasy, and they didn't even know what to do next.
After a long time, so long that the players thought it might have been dawn outside, the boat finally stopped.
The players stood on the edge of the boat holding lighting tools and looked around, and found that the boat seemed to be stuck in a group of rocks. There were jagged rocks all around, and several strange creatures with indescribable appearances were crawling around.
"Are we going to stay here for seven days and then be eliminated for overtime?"
"I'm not that unlucky, I might as well jump into the sea and go back."
"Maybe this is the place to pass the level."
"Are you kidding me? This is the clearance point? We can't even get out. Besides, the water pressure outside is so high. We'll die if we get out."
One player was upset after hearing this and opened his quest panel to see if there were any new quests released, only to discover that the first main quest, finding the highest-value quest item, had already been completed! How come he didn't know when it was completed?
After asking other people, I found that everyone present was in the completion status. This time, the system unusually did not send out a reminder. They would not look at the task panel unless it was necessary, so no one knew when it was shown as completed, or how they completed the main task. Everyone was confused.
Zhou Zhou thought for a moment and said, "Maybe the first team to find the sword will be in the completed state, and then hand the sword to the captain, and everyone will be in the completed state. The system only lets us find it, but doesn't tell us what to do next. It seems that there may be a hidden rule in it. After the captain receives the sword, all players on the ship will be in the completed state."
Zhou Zhou’s analysis does make sense, but everyone was speechless. This is too ridiculous.
According to normal people's thinking, the first team to find the sword completes the task, and the others will definitely snatch it in order to pass the level. Even if they snatch it, they will protect it well and will never give it to the Skeleton Captain. In this way, only one group of people can complete the main task. It is impossible for anyone to know that this condition of handing the sword to the captain requires everyone to complete it.
It was really a scam. If they hadn't known their own situation and had no intention of snatching it away, and Zhou Zhou had simply given the sword to the captain, how could such a hidden condition be achieved?
Players have complained that the designer of this dungeon is not a human being. He could create such a weird condition, forcing everyone to kill each other. After everyone is killed, they don’t know that if they just get along well and be generous, everyone can complete the task together.
There's no need to make such a big fuss.
They couldn't help but shed tears of sympathy for Wu Yu, Kori and others.
"Did you feel it? The boat seems to be moving again." A player held his breath and paid close attention to the environment around him and under his feet.
Others felt it, too: "Are we going to sink to the bottom of the ocean again? Where exactly are we going to sink to?"
But this time the boat didn't sink, it started to rise.
The ship slowly rose up, and everyone was a little excited, wondering if it would just go back to the surface of the sea.
One player had a puzzled look on his face, and looked very confused: "But this is not scientific. How can it continue to rise after sinking to the bottom? It's too weird."
The others don't care about this, as long as they can get back to the surface of the sea.
When passing a dark blue area, everyone looked at the lighting tools in their hands with confusion. They had not seen this area when they just sank, and they could not see anything soon after sinking, so what was this place?
Just when everyone was feeling strange, a person suddenly sank above the dim blue area. It was a passenger on the ship, a thin man like a stick. He had his eyes closed and looked dead. He slowly sank in everyone's sight. When he passed by the side of the ship and brushed past the players, everyone felt a little heavy. If they could touch these people, they could save them from the pirates instead of watching everyone die while they could do nothing.
A player looked at the man's pale face and sighed softly. The next moment, the thin man suddenly opened his eyes. His body was facing the players on the boat at this moment. The sudden opening of his eyes scared everyone.
"Oh my god! What happened! Are you still alive?"
"I was scared to death."
"Ahhh, what is this?"
The thin man stopped sinking and just floated in the sea, staring at the players on the boat.
Faced with such a horrifying sight, everyone was a little scared and moved away from the location of the thin man.
But other places didn't seem safe either. In the dark blue sea, passengers slowly floated down from above one after another.
The second one was a woman, with long hair floating in the sea like seaweed, her face was pale and her body was stiff, but like the first man, she was floating facing the ship not far away. Her originally peaceful expression changed in an instant. She opened her eyes and stared at the players, her eyeballs slightly bulging, as if filled with endless resentment.
Then the third, the fourth... Every dead person will float around the boat, staring at the player with their eyes open.
The dead creature, which had been swollen after being soaked in the sea, had an expressionless face, a stiff body, and a strange gaze, all of which made the players terrified.
If there was only one, it would be fine, but the key was that all the passengers and crew were standing around. The sight of such a dense group of dead bodies made one's scalp tingle, and one felt like they were being stared at no matter where they went.
Some timid players are about to cry. If they had known this would happen, they would rather continue to sink to the bottom of the sea for as long as they wanted, just to avoid having the dead passengers staring at them. It is really terrifying.
In the silent sea, this strange blue area is like a cemetery of the dead. They wander here with endless resentment. Their souls cannot rest in peace, and they can only pray that the murderer will fall into hell.
The hull continued to float upwards, and the dead bodies were slowly moving upwards with the speed of the ship, and it seemed as if they had been standing still beside the ship.
The players were trembling with fear and originally wanted to enter the cabin or lounge to avoid these sights, but when they remembered that the cabins and lounges were where these deceased had stayed when they were alive, the hairs on their bodies stood up.
I could only stay close to other players and keep my head down as much as possible, trying to minimize my presence.
Zhou Zhou looked at the dead bodies outside the boat, and he found that these passengers seemed to be looking at them, not at the boat, but at them. However, when Zhou Zhou moved away, he found that they were not staring at him, but at other players huddled together.
So they're just targeting some of these people? Why?
The boat continued to rise and finally left the strange blue area. The dead stayed in the blue area and did not follow. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Every minute and every second just now passed too slowly. Many people are still trembling with their breathing.
Half an hour later, they could vaguely see the sea surface. It seemed to be daytime outside and there was a faint light shining through the sea surface.
Everyone was looking forward to returning to the surface of the sea as soon as possible. The sight just now made many people feel numb all over, and they haven't recovered yet. At least they have to wait until they return to the surface of the sea and see the sun in the daytime to be sure that they don't have to be afraid anymore.
As the ship got closer and closer to the sea, everyone stood up and looked up. When the ship returned to the surface of the sea, everyone couldn't help but raise their hands and cheer.
But the cheers only lasted a very short time.
Looking at the intact ship floating on the sea, the carefree passengers walking around on the ship, and the sailors mopping the deck. The players put down their hands in confusion. Even though the weather was very good and the sun was shining brightly, making them feel warm, everyone still couldn't help but shiver and felt creepy.
What is going on? Aren’t all these people dead?
The author has something to say:
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
