Chapter 95: Hopeless Sea (19) Sacrifice

Crises emerged one after another, rules were riddled with traps, and experience didn’t necessarily work.

In the face of death, everyone was equal; there was no distinction between newcomers and veterans.

The conversation between Qi Si and Lu Li brought the hidden horrors into the light. With just a bit of association, one could think: if even players of that level died inexplicably, what about the others?

Triggering the minimum death toll mechanism was undoubtedly the simplest and crudest choice.

There was no longer a need to fight against the nearly unsolvable weirdness, only to deal with fellow human players… Qi Si walked straight to the low table by the nightstand and pulled open the drawer.

As expected, several yellowed vintage sheets of manuscript paper lay quietly in the brownish-black wooden compartment, as if the word “clue” was slapped right onto the players’ faces.

Hans killed the players who approached the Altar because he knew more clues; now that he was dead, those clues happened to be in his room’s drawer… everything seemed so natural and logical.

Qi Si lowered his eyes, casually pulled out the manuscript paper, and read the contents aloud:

【Crouch actually wants to stay and live on the island. Has his brain been eaten by Yuna?】

【That woman always reminds me of the sirens in sailors’ rumors. She’s too terrifying. It’s an indescribable feeling; she’s definitely not a living person…】

【No, Crouch has also become terrifying. He’s become a stranger; he’s starting to adapt to this island… Habit, what a terrifying word!】

…【I had that dream again. The Sea God’s eyes were watching me. Step by step, I walked to the center of the Altar and was bestowed with a so-called sacred object.】

【He is tempting me. I cannot go there, even though the ultimate answer I seek is likely there… Many people have already died. Everyone is dead, died in the Altar, died under the temptation of the Sea God…】

【Why would anyone believe that an island without night is an explorer’s fortuitous encounter? Why would anyone think that legendary treasures are hidden in the center of a lonely island?】

…【Crouch is looking at me. I heard the sound of him swallowing saliva. He wants to eat me, just like he was gorging on that fish meat a few days ago!】

【But he is restraining himself, not directly using force against me… Definitely not out of morality. He seems to be restricted by something. Is it the text on the stone tablet we saw when we came onto the island?】

【Today, he suggested I go to the seaside again, even saying in a longing and nostalgic tone how happy the days when we swam in the seawater were… I have a strong feeling that he is no longer himself, but has turned into something unknown!】

…【I heard the call of the Sea God. Knowledge, occultism, Rituals… In an instant, I learned many things I couldn’t know before. It was a terrifying feeling, yet also wonderful. I can’t describe it in detail.】

【My memory is clearer than ever. Scenes from my childhood manifested before my eyes one by one. I even remembered the advice the old sailor gave me before we set out to sea.】

【Yes, I remember now. Someone crossed this eerie sea area. He wrote in his nautical log: Record the time from the moment you land on the island; every three days, there is an opportunity to leave. At that time, the winds and waves will be calm, and even a small wooden boat can cross the ocean…】

【That’s too absurd. Why would I happen to see this account and remember it at this moment? Is my memory real? Is my thought still my own?】

【No, I have no other way. I’ve turned into a bird. I must leave immediately… must…】

…Like the previous clue, this one was also a diary, but it belonged to another person, someone without a name.

Based on preliminary judgment, the owner of the diary was a sailor who was well-acquainted with Crouch, and his status should not be low.

The handwriting on the back of the manuscript paper became more and more messy, to the point where only some hard-to-identify carved symbols remained.

Without the translation provided by the Eerie Game, Qi Si felt he couldn’t see anything more, so he simply passed the manuscript paper to Chang Xu beside him.

Chang Xu scanned it from beginning to end and then passed it to Lu Li.

Soon, the manuscript paper made a round among the players.

The words on it recorded the writer’s experience of being trapped on the island. The terrifying situations that the players had and hadn’t encountered were vividly portrayed on the paper, bringing a bad warning and also signaling hidden crises.

Lu Li pondered for a moment and said, “Tomorrow is the third day.”

The diary clearly stated, 【Record the time from the moment you land on the island; every three days, there is an opportunity to leave】.

But who knew if this information was true or false? This instance didn’t have a prerequisite that “NPCs won’t lie.”

Qi Si said thoughtfully, “If we miss tomorrow, we’ll have to wait another three days. The longer it drags on, the more dangerous it becomes. Moreover, the money most people have probably won’t last that long.”

He stopped there, and Zhang Hongfeng immediately added, “I can finish repairing that boat today. Leaving tomorrow won’t be a problem. Don’t we have feathers? We should be able to make wings for everyone too.”

The players looked at Hans, who was covered in feathers on the bed, and then at themselves; no one had any objections.

Qi Si and Chang Xu went downstairs with the crowd. As soon as they reached the lobby, a pungent fishy smell hit them—the meal was ready.

No one was being polite now. Several players dedicated to self-producing and self-consuming feathers all picked up their chopsticks to grab a small dish of seaweed in the middle of the table, each using their own skills to divide the only vegetarian dish.

Probably because they were hungry from not eating well in the previous meals, after finishing the seaweed, they turned their attention to the remaining plates of food with plenty of fish meat.

Several people, after taking a few bites of fish meat, unknowingly ate quite a bit more, significantly more than their previous appetite.

“Delicious, truly delicious! So tasty!” they murmured.

One player even made a judgment: “Yuna changed the ingredients. The fish from the past few days tasted like human meat, but today’s fish is normal.”

Liu Yuhan shook her head: “It’s not necessarily that the fish is normal. It might be that we have changed; we are turning from fish into birds. A fish eating fish would feel it’s strange, but a bird eating fish would not…”

“Stop talking,” Lu Li said in a low voice. “Since you’ve already eaten, don’t increase everyone’s psychological pressure.”

The players quietly buried their heads in their food. Large patches of feathers grew on their necks and backs with the swallowing movements, like shrubs growing wildly after rain.

The fishy smell was still pungent. No matter how long one’s nasal cavity was soaked in this smell, humans could not be forced to adapt to it.

Qi Si walked straight out of the hotel to breathe fresh air.

Behind him, Chang Xu followed and asked, “What did you mean by what you told me before, ‘only sleeping for such a short time’?”

“Literally,” Qi Si turned to look at him with a sincere gaze. “I’m a freelancer and am used to sleeping until I wake up naturally, unlike you with your regular schedule.”

Chang Xu had a feeling and pressed on, “There’s a problem with the time, isn’t there? After drinking the Calming Soup and falling asleep, we can’t hear the bells ringing during that period, so it’s easy to misjudge the time. Is that it?”

“Take a guess.” Qi Si’s gaze fell on the feathers on his shoulder.

This man hadn’t missed a single meal since entering the instance. At this moment, he was undergoing a visible mutation in the sea breeze. Long, narrow feathers grew from his back, reflecting an orange-yellow glimmer, bright and dazzling.

Chang Xu turned his head slightly and also saw the feathers on himself. He said calmly, “The control experiment has a result. After eating the hotel’s food, feathers will grow on the body. On the first day, the feathers grew on the throat; on the second day, they grew on the back.”

Qi Si leaned in, plucked a feather from Chang Xu’s back, and held it in his hand to study.

There was golden blood on the root of the feather. The whole thing was as slippery as a fish scale, and the uneven surface seemed to be coated with a layer of wax, feeling greasy and soft to the touch.

Chang Xu took the feather, weighed it, and then leaped up, his body momentarily suspended in the air.

He made a judgment: “With twice as many feathers, I’ll be able to fly.”

“I see…” Qi Si smiled. “It seems that just our own feathers aren’t quite enough. We’ll have to go ask Yuna for the method to make wings. Brother Chang, will you go, or should I?”

“I won’t go.” Chang Xu shook his head. “I don’t think flying off the island is the best clearance plan. Firstly, it requires the player’s body to undergo mutation. Secondly, because of limited resources, it will cause players to kill each other, and their mindset will shift toward a non-human direction.

“Both of these are negative consequences that are carefully considered and advocated to be banned in the Forum. The risk is not low, and it’s full of crises. I think there must be another clearance method that can avoid these two disadvantages.”

“I think so too,” Qi Si agreed. “Growing feathers on the body is simply too ugly. Besides, we still have one place left to explore…”

Before today, growing wings to fly off the island was still one of his backup plans. After all, the myth of Icarus was deeply rooted in people’s hearts.

But after discovering that the players grew the required feathers just by eating on time and had unknowingly gotten used to the fish meat on the island, he realized something was wrong—

Everything was too simple, too logical.

If growing wings was enough to fly off the island and clear the game, then anyone with a normal IQ could do it. Why go through such a large detour?

Unless this itself was a trap, and the process of players turning from fish into birds was also the process of being assimilated by the instance… Not far away, Angela, with her green hair, walked over casually and smiled familiarly, “Two handsome guys, the rule says ‘If you wish to leave the island, you may ask the Sea God for matters regarding departure.’ Are you interested in going to the Altar with me to see that Sea God?”

“Only one person from Sera has died, and there are still two left. Aren’t you afraid of getting sapped like Lu Li?” Qi Si looked at her with a half-smile. “Or do you know who the people from Sera are?”

Angela’s expression showed no flaws: “I just feel they wouldn’t dare to make a move at this time because they can’t be sure if we are bait to lure them out.

“Moreover, if we don’t go today, there won’t be another chance, will there? We’re leaving tomorrow; you probably wouldn’t want to give up on the world-building that’s right within reach, would you?”

“Why look for us to cooperate?” Qi Si asked. “It’s known that there are still two ‘Puppets’ among the players. The probability that neither of us is a ‘Puppet’ is only seven out of twelve, just over half. Do you dare to gamble?”

Angela gave a mischievous smile: “I can be sure you’re not. I’ve watched Chang Xu’s live stream. People from Sera generally don’t stream.”

Live stream? Qi Si narrowed his eyes.

He knew that the stream footage included a five-meter radius around the streamer and only turned off when the player was using the bathroom, streaking, or sleeping.

If Chang Xu had started a stream, then as Chang Xu’s teammate, many of his actions and words must have been leaked, and his face would be familiar to many people.

Although he had long anticipated the possibility of some idiot starting a stream and had been restrained and covert in his actions, he still felt a moment of coldness in his heart upon knowing that the biggest idiot was right beside him… Qi Si lowered his eyes to hide the gloom within them and teased with a smile, “Brother Chang, it looks like this girl is a fan of yours.”

Chang Xu didn’t know that his temporary teammate already had murderous intent—the kind that didn’t even plan to preserve the integrity of the specimen’s raw materials.

He sized up Angela for two seconds and then cast an inquiring look at Qi Si.

He had never refused other players’ requests for help or cooperation, but the current situation was different.

He didn’t understand much about social graces, but he knew that making a decision without consulting his teammate when he had one was impolite behavior.

If something went wrong then, it would harm not only himself but also his innocent teammate.

Qi Si looked at Angela, his gaze clear and bright: “The existence of the Puppeteers, the dangers mentioned in the diary, the loss of time and money… the crisis factors are increasing, and the probability of death is already far greater than the probability of deciphering the world-building and clearing the game through the normal path.

“You’re worried that some players might harm others in a moment of desperation, killing other players to trigger the minimum death toll mechanism. So, you want to first gather a larger allied group to decipher the world-building, right?”

Angela nodded frankly.

Qi Si asked back: “Then have you ever thought that being the first to form an alliance will make you a target for everyone?

“There are ten players in total, not five or six; and among these ten, there are still two members of Sera who will inevitably uphold a zero-sum mindset and eliminate the strongest first. Once a three-person alliance is formed, the outcome will most likely be all three of us dying together.

“After all, we’re different from Lu Li and the others. In the eyes of outsiders, we knew each other beforehand and might have even used certain items to specifically enter the same instance together, and they don’t know what we’re plotting.”

He paused for a moment and sighed: “Furthermore, I don’t think exploring the Altar is a wise choice. The diary has already made it very clear that approaching the Altar really leads to death.”

Angela gave a regretful smile, exchanged a few more words of nonsense, and then stopped paying attention to Qi Si, turning back to the hotel.

Chang Xu had been silent but understood what Qi Si meant and asked, “Why wouldn’t a two-person alliance be targeted? According to the Truel theory, any alliance formed first could be attacked by everyone else.”

“Who said a two-person alliance wouldn’t be targeted?” Qi Si’s eyes were full of self-deprecation. “As far as I know, I’ve already been targeted. Whether I can survive this instance is up in the air.”

“Then why did you still ask to stay with me?”

“Heh, haha.” Qi Si gave three standard cold laughs. “Why do you think I have a choice? As soon as we entered the instance, you followed me to confirm some groundless suspicion. If we don’t walk together now, wouldn’t that be trying to hide something?”

Chang Xu fell silent, unable to find a reason to refute for a moment, because what Qi Si said happened to be the truth.

With the intention of testing and recruiting, he had followed Qi Si closely, but he had ignored the dangers hidden behind the events.

Because of his outstanding combat power, he had had a smooth journey and never cared about others’ opinions. But those with strong hard power like him were in the minority after all… At this moment, Qi Si’s attitude made him feel flustered for no reason.

In his memory, this young man had always been calm and welcoming. For him to lose his composure like this, it could only be that the situation had gone out of control, even to a fatal degree… Qi Si took a deep breath and let it out, stepping back wearily: “It’s useless to tell you these things now; things haven’t reached an unsolvable point yet.

“We’ll separate from now on. Go to the Clock Tower again. No matter what method you use, bring down that skeleton on the top floor and place it in the center of the three points: the hotel, the Clock Tower, and the Altar.

“Next, you might encounter many things you can’t understand. I don’t expect you to trust me unreservedly. If I really die here, I’ll just consider it my own poor judgment of character and take it as bad luck.”

He smiled very faintly, his pale face looking weak and powerless, with a clear forced composure: “That’s all I have to say. Brother Chang, farewell.”

Chang Xu was a bit hesitant, but after seeing Qi Si’s urging eyes, he felt instinctively that the task given to him was extremely important, possibly the final way to break the situation, and there was no room for error.

“Be careful. If things really reach an irreversible point, I will do my best to take you away.”

He left a sentence and hurried toward the Clock Tower.

After Chang Xu’s figure disappeared into the coconut grove, Qi Si raised his hand to touch his face, withdrawing the panic and helplessness from his expression.

He turned back to the hotel, walked to Angela’s side as she was about to go out, and asked with a smile, “Shall we go to the Altar together?”