Chapter 16: A Letter from Roba

[Master, are you alright?]

Ella’s voice held a rare trace of fluctuation as she fluttered her wings, circling around Sykes.

Sykes ignored it.

He just stared fixedly at the familiar notebook, his hands, which were usually steady and strong enough to precisely mix reagents during experiments, now trembling slightly.

‘Is this Roba’s handwriting?’

‘Why was there a letter from him in that study, and why did I know nothing about it?’

The merman was certain that when he set up the dungeon stages, he had thoroughly renovated the room and placed restrictions on every single item.
There was absolutely no possibility of carelessly leaving anything behind.

He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he had regained his usual composure.

Sykes opened the letter and read from the beginning.

[I don’t know if we’ll still be around when you see this letter. The clan has made a big decision, and the elder ordered me to keep it from you.]

[But I won’t.]

‘I knew it. With Roba’s unruly personality, how could he possibly write a proper letter?’ Sykes thought.
‘This opening probably used up all his patience.’

The merman continued to read.

[Why must it be kept from you? You’ve always been the smartest one among us fish. Maybe you could have come up with a better way.]

[Actually, everything I said above is fake. You didn’t really believe it, did you?]

[I just simply can’t stand you. I’m afraid you never knew this.]

‘No, I knew.’ Sykes answered in his heart.

Roba was the leader of the group of little merfolk who had taken the initiative to provoke him back then.
But after he had beaten them all up, he was no longer the leader.
The merfolk respected strength, and the little followers under Roba had all gathered around him.
How could he possibly be reconciled to that?

Occasionally, when Sykes looked up from his book, he would find Roba standing far away, looking at him with a very complicated gaze.

‘It must have started from then. He has always despised me.’

Before the merman’s eyes, the image of that red-tailed merman suddenly appeared again—Roba’s appearance was as fiery as his personality.

He seemed to see that red merman waving his fist, standing in front of him and saying:

[You always pretend to be out of place with others, but in reality, you just don’t know how to communicate, right?]

…Hmm?

[Is it so hard to say, “I want to make friends”?]

Reading this, Sykes showed a bewildered expression—why was the turn of events different from what he had thought?

[You isolate yourself from others again, and then you put on a desolate look.]

Roba chattered on.

[I really can’t stand you.]

[You were also very happy when you were called ‘boss’, weren’t you? You’re the best fighter, you should have been our boss, but you never acknowledged us.]

[Later, you secretly ran out of the Sea of Death to study. Did you think no one knew? The elder and I watched you leave.]

Sykes’s mouth fell open as he recalled the day he left.
Everything seemed to have gone too smoothly—so it wasn’t an illusion, someone was actually letting him go easy?

[Actually, I’ve had enough of these damn restrictions! Why do we merfolk have to keep suppressing the things in the abyss? For this responsibility, even going out to take a look is not allowed by the rules? If I could go, I might have gone with you that day.]

[You are the only merman who can walk out of the restrictions. You were meant to be different.]

When Roba wrote this, there was even a sense of pride.

[Don’t look down on me for not being as smart as you, but I also have my own things to do.]

[Don’t worry about us too much, boss.]

[If this time is a success, you’ll finally acknowledge me when we meet again, right?]

Sykes clutched the letter that was several hundred years late, an inexplicable sourness welling up in his heart.

‘Meet again?’

He thought of the empty, lifeless merfolk territory he had seen when he rushed back, and couldn’t help but press his lips together tightly.

‘I should have come back earlier.’

“Ella, I need you to investigate something,” Sykes looked at the butler over there.

Back to the players’ side.

Ever since Sea Realm forcibly kicked the players offline, the special section for it on the forum had exploded.
The commotion attracted many passersby who hadn’t paid much attention to the game to come and watch the excitement.

[Official maintenance came early, and I actually slept in the wild.]

[-RT, I just want to know if there’s any compensation from the officials. The poster doesn’t want to dig for stones to save up for resurrection anymore. I haven’t even done that much housework at home, yet I’m moving bricks every day in a game.]

[-Came in after seeing the title. Are we brothers in misery? But I was one step away from entering my house. My hand was still on the doorknob, and then I was gone.]

[-I still have quests to turn in (Erkang hand¹).]

[-With such a big mistake this time, there will definitely be compensation. It’s time to judge whether this official is generous or stingy!]

[-I hope they don’t learn from the game next door, which only gives a little bit of resources each time. Do they dare to give a ten-pull at once?]

[-Good lord, you still dare to ask for a ten-pull from the game next door? It gives out the resources for one pull in three installments. It’s probably easier to hope for it to go bankrupt.]

[-Don’t derail the thread. Speaking of which, have you guys heard the reason for the maintenance? I remember it said they’re opening a new power system. Rubbing hands in anticipation.]

[-Right, it’s the reward after Team One Two Three cleared the dungeon, right? The live stream said it’s related to magic.]

[-!!! Magic! Do I still have a chance to learn magic in this lifetime?]

[-Sob sob sob, the owl didn’t come when I was eleven, and I gave up hope. I didn’t expect my dream to come true in Sea Realm.]

[-Pure passerby who hasn’t played the game. Just a weak question, this game actually dares to do magic? They dare to touch such a metaphysical power system?]

[-Pure passerby +1. Didn’t Cloud Games try to launch a holographic magic game before? In the end, it was just a bunch of dazzling special effects. There was no feeling of using magic at all. I just felt like others were watching me as if I were a monkey performing, parentheses, I was that monkey.]

[-Sea Realm is such a highly realistic game, wouldn’t it be even harder to make magic plausible? It’s probably just sticker special effects in eight out of ten cases.]

[-I advise the person above not to speak rashly before seeing the results. Didn’t the forum not think highly of its realism before? And what was the result?]

[-Realism and this are different. And the higher the realism, isn’t the difficulty of constructing a power system even greater?]

[-I won’t express an opinion. Sea Realm‘s realism has already slapped me in the face once. I’ll just wait for the official results. If it can really do magic well, then I’ll be a forever Sea Realm fan!]

[-I don’t care about what magic or not. I just want to ask when the game will increase the closed beta slots? This child is dying of craving for S-grade realism.]

[-The prophet is to be executed. Sea Realm has released an official notice! They are about to add 100 more closed beta slots!]

[Master, the Cloud Weibo notice has been sent out, and the new energy has also been replenished,] Ella folded her wings and landed on the table, reporting to the merman.

Sykes: “What about the matter I asked you to investigate?”

[After investigation, that player who didn’t log on has fallen into a coma due to a sudden familial disease. According to medical history, the coma generally lasts from one to more than ten years. It is confirmed that this account will no longer be used.]

The merman nodded.
He had learned an important piece of information from the last letter Roba had left.

Rules.

It was actually the rules.

Since it involved the rules, Sykes understood why he couldn’t see the letter, but the players could easily find it.

Since the rules forbade him from seeing it, if he acted together with the players, could he find more clues hidden by the rules?

Coincidentally, Ella had found a suitable candidate.

Sykes decided to take the other’s place and personally participate in the game.

Footnotes:

1. 尔康手 (Ěrkāng shǒu), “Erkang’s hand,” is a famous meme from the TV drama My Fair Princess. It depicts a character reaching out desperately, and is used to express a strong sense of longing or desperation.