Chapter 9: The Mysterious Cave

After Yan Shuangwen’s pickaxe struck, Sykes, who had been quietly reading a book, suddenly felt a palpitation in his heart.
He had a feeling that something unexpected had quietly happened.

He flipped through a few more pages of the book, but still couldn’t absorb much.

Sykes gave up on trying to continue reading, reached out to grab the magic mirror that was placed to one side, and called for the omnipotent Ella.
Nothing unexpected had happened in this territory for hundreds of years, but since that group of players arrived, it seemed like he encountered new surprises every day.

Although this greatly alleviated the boredom of a long-lived species, too frequent surprises also gave a fish a headache.

“Ella.”
Sykes first switched the magic mirror’s view to Hua Yibing’s side.
Seeing this troublemaker quietly staying in his house repairing the roof, he breathed a slight sigh of relief.

[Master, is there anything you need to command Ella to do?]

The calm, flat voice appeared in the merman’s mind the next second.

“Where did you go?” Sykes asked, somewhat puzzled.

Ella tilted her head a little stiffly, causing a certain player fish in the exchange post to cry out from being overwhelmed by cuteness.

[Ella is at the exchange post. According to human forum intelligence, when a new function goes online, it needs to be guided by an NPC, otherwise chaos is likely to occur.]

As she spoke, she seemed to sigh and lamented, [Humans are indeed still cubs in their twenties.]

“That’s true.”

Sykes suddenly understood why the players always pulled off some unconventional slick moves.
From what he understood, the oldest player in this closed beta was no more than thirty years old.
In the sea clans, this was still a mischievous cub.

‘So that’s how it is. That explains everything.’

“Ella, check the location of every player and report any with abnormal behavior to me.”
The merman was still not at ease and ordered his butler to check for troublemakers again.

‘What if, besides that pink-haired one, there are other players who love to cause trouble?’

[After investigation, a total of three players are behaving abnormally.]

Ella projected the images of the three individuals onto the magic mirror.
Sykes looked at the first one.

‘What is this guy doing? Trying to start a fire in the sea?’

‘Let him be. I wish him success.’
The merman swiped his hand to the right, switching to the second player.

This player seemed to be exploring the boundaries of the domain, walking around the transparent wall.

‘They’ve found the boundary so quickly? Seems pretty good.’
Sykes approvingly memorized her name.

He nonchalantly placed his finger on the mirror’s surface and swiped to the third person…

Sykes’s tail, which had been casually resting under the chair, suddenly stiffened with a ‘swoosh’.
From his waist to the tip of his tail, it became as stiff as a stick, like the dried fish often hung in human villages.

‘What’s going on?’

‘Why was that area also included in the domain, and discovered by a player?’

He slowly took off his glasses and rubbed the space between his eyebrows, trying to relax a little.

‘Just how many more surprises can these players give a fish!’

Sykes leaned back, his memory drifting back many years—

That cave… it really was a long, long time ago.

Back then, he was still a merman cub.
In cub school, he always found his peers to be exceptionally noisy.

‘Why do they always have so much energy for fighting and causing trouble?’

Sykes, whose train of thought had been interrupted for the thousand-and-first time, couldn’t bear it anymore and gave those little devils a sound beating.
But unexpectedly, this had the opposite effect—those troublemakers, who submitted to no one, actually came to him one by one, flapping their fishtails, saying they wanted him as their boss.

Unable to bear the disturbance, Sykes found a hidden cave to hide in, stashing his frequently read books and favorite utensils there.
He then arranged it a little, the main purpose being to guard against fire, theft, and other merfolk.

And Sykes’s secret cave was the one Yan Shuangwen was currently knocking on.

A truly long, long time had passed.
He couldn’t remember many of the details, a common problem for long-lived species.

If he hadn’t seen it on the magic mirror today, he himself would have almost forgotten the existence of this place.

Thinking back to his little merman followers now, Sykes had a feeling of things having changed while the fish were gone.
Why did that group of lively, tough, and silly fish suddenly disappear?

[Master, does Ella need to issue a warning to that player?]

Ella sensed the drastic fluctuation in Sykes’s emotions.
Although she couldn’t understand it, she still considerately proposed a solution.

Sykes closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he had returned to his calm demeanor.

“Not for now,” the merman said with certainty.
“He can’t get in.”

Just as Sykes had predicted, Yan Shuangwen indeed couldn’t get into the cave.

After smashing the large rock at the entrance with a pickaxe, he thought he had solved the biggest problem, but he didn’t know that this was just the beginning.

In the short ten-meter journey that followed, Yan Shuangwen narrowly dodged arrows ambushing from both sides, randomly detonating bricks under his tail, and a giant net that suddenly appeared in front of him…

Then he was sucked up by a powerful force, back to the ceiling and face to the ground, looking at his current situation with a rather hopeless expression.

His tail couldn’t move, his hands couldn’t move.
The only part of his body that could move was probably his brain.
He couldn’t even commit suicide to go to the resurrection point.

As for logging off… speaking of which, one had to mention Sea Realm‘s peculiar rule.
Before the system’s mandatory logout time, all players could only log off inside their houses.
Nowhere else would work.

Yan Shuangwen glanced at his panel.
There were still two hours until the mandatory logout time.

Should he continue to wait here dryly for the system to kick him, or think of another way?

Just then, he saw a function in his system column.

[Area Shout: Still worried about not being able to find reliable companions? Area Shout makes it easy to gather them! (Note: After using this function, other players within a hundred-meter radius of the player will receive the corresponding message, except for players who have blocked shouts.)]

A hundred meters could probably cover the central area of the quarry, but it was still a long way from the edge.
Players who came back to pick up rocks generally only stayed at the edge and wouldn’t venture deep like him.

‘Would it really be useful?’
Yan Shuangwen still sent a distress message, thinking he might as well try anything in a desperate situation.

Just a few minutes after the area shout was sent, a person’s voice came from the cave entrance: “Hey! Brother inside, are you okay?”

Yan Shuangwen: “I’m fine. Don’t rush in yet, there are many traps in this cave!”

The player outside answered, said “I understand,” and then there was no further sound.

The black-tailed merman trapped on the wall saw his gaze turn from anticipation back to coldness.

‘Right.’

The notice issued by the system today mentioned that death and resurrection would deduct a full 500 reputation points.
Those with negative reputation would be forced into labor to pay off their debt and would only be released after clearing it.

Once this rule was out, who would be willing to save a stranger…

“Hey, brother!”

Yan Shuangwen looked up blankly and saw a sturdily built merman stop in the open space below him, greeting him enthusiastically.

“My goodness, you’ve discovered a dungeon.”

After hearing Yan Shuangwen recount his experience of discovering the cave, the other person sighed with emotion.

While looking for a way to turn off the mechanism, the two had nothing better to do, so they started chatting.

The enthusiastic passerby merman introduced himself as “Old Li” and had come to the central area to explore the overall structure of the quarry.

“Dungeon?”
The doctoral student, who hadn’t played games in a million years, was a bit confused.

“You don’t even know what a dungeon is?”
Old Li, who was feeling his way along the wall inch by inch, turned his head in surprise.
“Then how did you get into Sea Realm?”

“I saw the promotional CG released by the officials, the sea creatures inside…”

Yan Shuangwen briefly introduced his identity and his purpose for playing the game, earning a hearty laugh from his new friend—

“Hahahahahaha, you’re really quite a persistent person, coming to play a holographic game without knowing anything. No wonder you’re so reckless.”
Old Li explained, “When I received the distress message just now, I was guessing if some newbie had recklessly闯and gotten themselves trapped.”

Yan Shuangwen was silent for a moment.
This time it was indeed his mistake for not being prepared before coming.
If worst came to worst, he should have called his roommate.
Although that guy was a bit foolish, it was still better than charging in alone.

“But,” Old Li’s tone changed, “I think you’re quite talented. I’ve been playing games for so long, and I still struggled a bit when going through the mechanisms, but you actually got here unscathed.”

“Maybe after playing for a while, you’ll be a high-level player too.”

He clapped his hands and looked apologetically at the little newcomer trapped above: “Brother, there doesn’t seem to be a mechanism here. Do you mind…”

Yan Shuangwen quickly understood what he meant and nodded.
“It’s fine. Did you bring a weapon?”

Old Li took out the golden machete from his backpack—the shiny gold color greatly increased Yan Shuangwen’s favorability.
‘Is my new friend a kindred spirit?’

Otherwise, why would he ignore the silver and gem-encrusted machetes in the exchange post and specifically exchange for a pure gold one?

This sharp rise in favorability made him ask before going to the resurrection point, “Should we team up to come here again later? To clear this… dungeon?”
Yan Shuangwen recalled what Old Li had just called it.

The dark green-tailed merman holding the machete was stunned for a moment, then readily agreed, “Sure, I have another teammate. We can form a team to run the dungeon later!”

Then, Old Li slit the other’s throat with the machete and watched him turn into specks of light and disappear into the seawater.

His mood right now was actually a bit complicated—since Sea Realm‘s server opened, the only two players who had used the resurrection point both seemed to have died before his very eyes, and both died by this machete.

“…”

Old Li looked at the radiant first-completion reward weapon in his hand and couldn’t bear to look at it directly, stuffing it into his bag.
‘It’s quite useful, but I really can’t agree with the system’s taste. Isn’t it a bit too blinding!’

At this time, Huahua was completely unaware that he was about to get a new teammate.
He had been repairing his teammate’s hut since just now.

After being reminded by that bookworm roommate, Hua Yibing had rushed to the bulletin board and looked over all the daily quests.

[Bulletin Board: Dear players, do you feel that the surrounding environment is a bit dilapidated and out of place with our noble Lord? In order to build a beautiful new fish village, please actively complete the following quests!]

[Daily Gathering Quest (1): Gather Coral Wood x30. Reward: 100 Reputation Points. Repeatable.]

[Daily Gathering Quest (2): Gather Stone x30. Reward: 100 Reputation Points. Repeatable.]

[Special Construction Quest: Repair a dilapidated merman’s hut x1. Reward: 1000 Reputation Points. Limited to once per player. Unlimited if the inspection result is 90 points or above.]

Hua Yibing only glanced at it and directly accepted the third quest.

As soon as the quest was accepted, thirty coral wood and thirty stones suddenly appeared in his backpack.
This made Hua Yibing breathe a slight sigh of relief—the damn system still had some conscience and didn’t require players to provide their own materials.
Then, he eagerly clicked on quest one to try and submit it, and immediately received a red card warning from the system—

[Quest items cannot be submitted! Please do not attempt to deceive the system.]

“Ahem,” Hua Yibing quickly closed the warning and turned to the viewers in the stream room as if nothing had happened.
“It’s time to show you what a true master house-builder is!”

But the bullet comments didn’t buy it at all—

[hhhhhhhh Huahua, you actually tried to find a system bug, you got warned, didn’t you?]

[Master house-builder? I’ll pretend to believe it.]

[Every time Huahua is so confident, he’s quickly slapped in the face by reality.]

[I say, do you guys still remember the ‘You Draw, I Guess’ game Huahua played before…]

[Holy crap, I remember now!]

[Me too… starting to feel sorry for the house that’s about to be brutalized.]

[What are you guys talking about! An abstract master is still a master!]

[Hahahahaha the person above forgot to put on a doge head.]

[I forgot, I’ll add it now. Doge head.jpg]

Hua Yibing pouted, mercilessly closing the bullet comments, and announced to the camera, “True art will not be disturbed by the outside world! You just wait and see my final result!”

He held a green coral wood in his left hand, striking a knight-holding-a-sword pose, looking quite the part.

“Where my sword points, there is success!”