Chapter 77: Hopeless Sea (I) – Ambition

The salty, fishy smell of seawater soaking into the wooden planks and drying in the wind rushed toward him. Even his shirt felt like it had been dusted with salt particles, provoking an itch that felt like a hallucination.

The darkness slowly dissipated, and as his vision settled, Qi Si found himself standing at the bow of a ship, stepping on broken, damaged wooden planks, leaning over the wooden gunwale.

Before him lay a boundless sea. Dark yellow waves rolled on and on. The surface of the sea was as pure and clean as if it had been scrubbed by wind and rain; there were no reefs, nor any other ships.

The sky merged tightly with the edge of the sea. The amber hues of twilight were mottled overhead like fish scales, with patches and clusters of yellow clouds rolling near and far, motionless and silent.

The 【humanoid evil spirit】 Identity Card hung in the upper right corner of his field of vision as usual, with scarlet eyeballs oozing out from between the surging black tentacles, looking even more vivid and exquisite than when he had seen it during the novice period.

Rolling mist gushed out, and gilded patterns overflowed at the edges. A trace of divinity was mixed into the eeriness, yet upon regaining his senses, he realized that even this feeling itself was a form of blasphemy.

A new notification flickered on the inventory at the bottom of his field of view, telling Qi Si that he could store items exceeding one cubic decimeter in volume inside, without needing to hold them in his hands or wear them on his person.

Unfortunately, the only item currently on Qi Si that met the storage standard was the Recorder he had swiped from the bus in the 【Carnivore】 instance.

【instance Name: “Hopeless Sea”】

【instance Type: Multiplayer Survival】

【Pre-hint: What you see with your own eyes may not be the truth.】

Only two lines of text refreshed on the system interface; there was no main quest, and the pre-hint was even more vague.

The description of “Multiplayer Survival” was ambiguous; there was no “team” limitation, no total number of players specified, nor were there any explicit adversarial attributes.

“So this is an official instance? There’s really much less information…”

Qi Si’s face looked a bit pale from seasickness. He turned around, leaning his back against the gunwale, taking in the full view of the ship he was on.

This was a huge sailing ship. Towering masts held up sails that blocked out the sky. Yellowed sailcloth overlapped, setting up hollow pavilions on the ship’s body.

The ship was of pure wooden construction, in the style of the 16th or 17th century. The deck was empty, and he didn’t see any other players for the time being.

In a situation where the total number of people was unknown, finding a corner to hide in and waiting until the others were mostly dead before coming out to loot corpses seemed like a good choice.

Qi Si pondered, his gaze lingering on a patch of unevenly colored blocks on the deck.

That looked like a trapdoor, leading who knew where.

Qi Si walked over with interest. When he was one step away, he heard a “click,” and the trapdoor was pushed open from the inside.

A figure climbed up the ladder behind the trapdoor and emerged from under the deck.

The person was tall and thin, dressed in black from head to toe. The brim of his hat half-covered his fair face, making the whole person look as gloomy and cold as a fern in a wetland.

Upon seeing Qi Si, the man tilted his head slightly: “It’s you?”

Qi Si’s eyes lit up.

Oh, wow. He had just been regretting that the fun was over, and he didn’t expect more fun to be delivered to his doorstep so soon.

With thousands of people matching into the instance at the same time, to be able to meet an acquaintance without using any party-up items was simply… too serendipitous.

Maybe this time he could find an opportunity to trick him into meeting up in reality, so he could dissect him and study his body structure…

Qi Si plotted maliciously, then remembered the business about the Pocket Watch of Fate, as well as the 【Rose Manor】 and 【Carnivore】 instances, and suddenly didn’t feel so happy anymore.

Dealing a lethal blow, embezzling items, impersonation… Any one of these things picked out was a significant grudge. Should he say that the Eerie Game really was full of wicked humor?

“Brother Chang, what a coincidence. I didn’t expect to see you again.”

Qi Si greeted him openly, not looking at all like someone with ulterior motives.

Chang Xu gave an “um,” and shifted his gaze away: “It is indeed a coincidence. After that instance ended, I thought I wouldn’t run into you again.”

Qi Si smiled: “It seems we’re quite fated. Let me introduce myself again: Si Qi, Specimen Maker. Thanks for taking care of me last time, Brother Chang.”

Chang Xu knew this meant he didn’t want to reveal his real name, so he nodded along: “Si Qi, long time no see. No need to thank me for last time.”

“Eh? Little brother, you two know each other?” A middle-aged man with graying hair poked his head out from the trapdoor, just in time to see the reunion scene of the two on the deck, each with their own hidden agenda.

The middle-aged man had a generic face that you wouldn’t recognize if tossed into a crowd, and his skin, crisscrossed with gullies, rendered a sense of vicissitudes from having been through the ringer in society for many years.

He climbed out of the trapdoor nimbly, revealing an orange jacket and gray trousers stained with wall dust, and smiled heartily: “My name is Zhang Hongfeng. I haven’t read much, but I know a few trades. You all can handle the brainy stuff; leave the physical labor to me!”

After standing firm on the deck, he turned around, crouched down, and reached his hand into the trapdoor.

A few seconds later, a girl climbed out, clinging to his hand.

The girl wore thick round-rimmed glasses, had short hair, and bangs covering her eyes, so her exact age couldn’t be told.

She hugged an old, worn notebook and said succinctly: “Liu Yuhan, good at puzzle-solving, poor physical stamina. Please take care of me.”

Just then, a dozen more people emerged one after another from various directions and gathered on the deck.

Even though they had all cleared their third instance and become official players, the levels of these people were uneven.

A few looked pale, appearing very frightened but forcing themselves to stay calm.

A few others were quite talkative, shouting at the top of their lungs, trying to organize the other players:

“Is everyone here? Let’s all introduce ourselves first and get to know each other.”

“Put introductions aside for now. We don’t even know what type of instance this is. We’d better split up and scout the situation first.”

As these people spoke, their gazes drifted toward Qi Si’s side unconsciously, carrying a sense of inquiry.

In a situation where everyone was a scattered mess, the group of four that had gathered first looked very conspicuous.

A short man’s eyes narrowed suddenly, and then he walked over with a face full of smiles, heading straight to Liu Yuhan: “You’re Yuhan, right? I’ve read your guides! I’ve survived several instances thanks to your methods!”

He didn’t speak softly, and before long, he attracted two more players over.

These two glanced at the notebook in Liu Yuhan’s arms a few times, a look of realization appearing on their faces.

“It really is the big shot Yuhan! Your guides are what I see the most on the Forum!”

“Big shot, take me with you! The puzzle-solving part of this instance is settled, hahaha.”

Qi Si understood more or less. This girl, who looked unassuming, was quite famous; she must be one of the theoretical players on the game Forum who studied instance guides.

Her reputation seemed quite good, and she likely put out free guides.

Qi Si hadn’t read many guides, and had always been unable to understand this kind of voluntary labor that gratuitously increased the survival probability of others.

Listening to the players complimenting Liu Yuhan one after another, he stepped back a few paces without leaving a trace, signaling that he was not familiar with this bunch of people.

Chang Xu followed silently and stood still by the gunwale, far away from the crowd.

He had turned on his livestream; for one, it was convenient to record all sorts of information about the instance, and for another, he could obtain some hints from a god’s-eye view.

While players in an instance certainly couldn’t see the content of the barrage, they could see donation notifications and the emotional pie charts of the audience’s barrage.

Just a moment ago, he had received a 1-point donation from Mu Dongxu. According to the pre-arranged code, this meant he was allowed to act freely.

Therefore, he followed his heart at the first opportunity and came to find Qi Si to investigate certain suspicions.

“Si Qi, I want to ask you about the 【Rose Manor】 instance.”

“Go ahead, what is it?” Qi Si stopped in his tracks and turned back to look at him, his expression carrying just the right amount of confusion.

Chang Xu recalled and said: “At that time, Lin Chen attacked me for unknown reasons. After I killed him, I triggered the time reversal. It can be inferred that the trigger condition for time reversal is ‘killing a human while having a human identity.’ It is known that you triggered a time reversal once. So, who did you kill that time?”

He paused, his voice cold: “Also, I remember that when Lin Chen attacked me, the mechanical clock had just struck twice. You had borrowed the Pocket Watch of Fate from me beforehand, undoubtedly wanting to determine the specific time outside the ancient castle. What exactly did you want to do then?”

“Don’t you already know the answer?” Qi Si sighed, smiling bitterly in helplessness, “That’s right, it’s just as you thought.”

“I induced Lin Chen to kill you, because no matter which of you died, the result would be the same; it would trigger a time reversal. Then I could take the opportunity to turn myself into a Ghost, suppress Miss Anna, and crack the worldview.”

“As for the time reversal I triggered, it was nothing more than me having a partial guess about the mechanism, and having to take a gamble in a dead end, wanting to try and see if I could bump into a way out.”

“At that time, Zou Yan was intercepting us at the stairs. She was half-Ghost, already the strongest existence under Miss Anna. Seeing that we couldn’t beat her combined, I could only ambush you from behind, trigger the time reversal, and return to an hour before.”

He actually just admitted it? Chang Xu’s pupils constricted slightly; his intuition told him something was not quite right.

Qi Si saw his doubt and shook his head lightly: “What’s there not to admit? Anyway, given the situation back then, only by triggering the time reversal could you and I survive. If it had failed, after you died, Zou Yan would definitely have silenced me too.”

“In a sense, we are grasshoppers tied to the same rope, aren’t we?”

Complex events were twisted into a ball. First, one needed to clarify the sequence of events one by one, then analyze the pros and cons clearly.

Qi Si knew he couldn’t hide everything, so he simply considered the importance and difficulty of deceiving for each item, and made a trade-off:

Chang Xu already knew the gist of the 【Rose Manor】 affair, so he might as well throw it out as bait.

As for the 【Carnivore】 instance… what was that? Clearly, that was something you, Chang Xu, did. What did it have to do with me, Qi Si?

Chang Xu touched the back of his own neck and asked: “You’re telling me all this, aren’t you afraid I’ll retaliate against you?”

“Not afraid. After getting along in Rose Manor, I feel you’re a pretty good person and won’t be so petty.” Qi Si issued a ‘good person’ card, accompanied by moral kidnapping, “The situation was urgent at the time, and I didn’t have time to discuss it with you, but I believe in your character; even if you had known my plan in advance, you wouldn’t have opposed it.”

That made sense.

Having been used once in 【Rose Manor】, Chang Xu actually didn’t mind, because the result was good, and there really hadn’t been a more suitable plan.

In his heart, he was even grateful to Qi Si for being able to think of a way to clear the instance in time, helping him and Lin Chen survive.

What he cared about more was: Who exactly was the Slaughter-path player who impersonated him in the 【Carnivore】 instance?

Chang Xu stared into Qi Si’s eyes and spoke slowly: “Sorry, I have one more question…”

“Ladies and gentlemen!” A high-pitched greeting interrupted his words.

A man dressed in retro European-style clothing appeared on the deck at some point. He walked to the middle of the players in a few steps and announced loudly: “We are about to reach the Devil’s Triangle sea area. Please return to the cabins to sleep as soon as possible. Legend has it that if you wake up midway through passing through this sea area, you will vanish into thin air, and no one will be able to save you.”

The man’s tone was neither humble nor pushy, his status should not be low, and he was likely the captain of this ship.

The players’ clothing was all rather modern, clearly not in the same style as this captain’s attire. It was just unknown what status or image they appeared as in the eyes of this NPC.

“Gentlemen, I guarantee with the surname of Crouch that I am not fear-mongering.” The captain’s tone grew anxious, as if he were truly worried about the players’ safety, “You all should have heard those legends…”

“Then what about you?” A young man with gold-rimmed glasses interrupted him with a smile, “Will you stay awake in this sea area?”

This was a paradox in itself. If being awake really meant danger, and the captain himself had to sleep, then there would be no one to steer the ship, and it would be out of control, which would instead bring about a greater crisis.

The captain smiled bitterly: “I am different. I am a believer of the Sea God, protected by Him.”

“None of you have ever believed in the Sea God. Only by entering ‘that dream’ can you find a moment of peace under the gaze of ‘the Sea God’s eyes’.”

“Time is running out. Everyone, hurry into the cabins and enter a dream as soon as possible. The Sea God is about to get angry…”

Seemingly to corroborate his words, a hazy mist rose on the sea surface unknowingly. A salty, fishy smell surged as if it had substance, rushing onto the deck in droves, casting shadowy, gray-black phantoms in the mist.

In the distance, clusters of dim yellow lights flickered and began to move. A few scattered circles of light instantly split into starry specks, surrounding the ship from all directions, getting closer and closer.

“Hurry into the cabins! Once Lord Sea God’s gaze falls, it’s all over!” The captain waved his hand toward the direction of the cabins and shouted loudly.

The players didn’t dare to be slow and rushed toward the opened cabin doors one after another, following his instructions.

After the few running at the very front rushed in and saw something, they stopped stiffly, but were quickly pushed forward by those behind, falling to the ground.

Amidst the chaos, a woman’s sobbing voice interjected: “Don’t come in! Inside… inside there are Ghosts!”

The woman’s voice was sharp, standing out from the noise.

The moment her words fell, everyone seemed like insects thrown into pine resin, frozen in place and unable to move. Even their voices vanished in an instant, as if stones had fallen into slippery mire.

They saw one after another hunched, rotting black shadow rushing out from behind the cabin door. They had no physical form, yet one could see clear humanoid outlines.

They lined up in a queue, hopping and skipping toward the gunwale, leaping over it and jumping into the sea, making Qi Si think inexplicably of the rumored “Tibetan Antelope Crossing.”

They were undoubtedly Ghosts, yet they seemed completely unable to see the players’ existence, only following a predetermined trajectory, jumping off the ship, not knowing how many cycles they had repeated.

In the silence, the captain’s broken voice sounded tremblingly: “It’s over… It’s the Sirens controlling the undead to claim lives! It’s all over… Our ship is cursed! We will all die!”

The deck vibrated violently, and darkness shrouded the world, bringing a fear that felt like blindness.

The captain’s voice gradually faded away. The knife-like sea wind accompanied the sound of waves, and a hoarse male narrator’s voice sounded leisurely:

【The pursuit of money, the fervent desire for honor, drove you to leave your homes and begin a long voyage.】

【Merchant, Scholar, Aristocrat—these identities were abandoned by you on the shore; at this moment, you are merely travelers far from home, ambitious people on the vast ocean.】

【Poverty, plague, suffering, death, or perhaps civilization, technology, science, openness—truth and lies no longer matter.】

【Because of an accident, you have come to a land outside the map and are trapped here.】

【Lost wandering souls, welcome to this Hopeless Sea. May the Sea God protect you.】