Chapter 26: One-Eyed Octopus

“What was that?” Hua Yibing exclaimed.

Yan Shuangwen didn’t answer, accelerating towards the shipwreck.

The sudden turn of events startled everyone.
Perhaps because they hadn’t encountered any dangers worth mentioning along the way, everyone had let their guard down, not expecting a monster to get the upper hand in the end.

“The quieter a place like this is, the more unforeseeable dangers there are,” Sykes sighed and followed.

“Are you okay?”
The three of them, weapons in hand, moved forward one step at a time, finally stopping outside the ship’s cabin.
Wary of the monster’s limbs that could appear at any moment, they didn’t rashly go inside.

As the fish with the loudest voice, Hua Yibing shouted into the ship.

The shipwreck was completely silent.
Not even half a tentacle appeared, as if the monster was… concentrating on digestion?

The thought of this possibility sent a chill down their spines.

“Damn it, let’s go in and take care of this monster! Our health is low anyway, might as well avenge Old Li!” Hua Yibing gnashed his teeth.

Yan Shuangwen didn’t say anything, but the golden pickaxe in his hand had already slowly transformed into the shape of a sword—it was the initial skill he had obtained, 《Inspiration Creation—Sword Form》.

As long as he had enough magic power, this skill could turn anything he handled into the shape of a sword, and it would have the sharpness of a real sword.
Stones, gold, anything he could find, even water currents!

But different materials had different requirements for skill proficiency, and the magic power consumed to maintain the form was also vastly different.

Under this premise, although Yan Shuangwen could only transform the shape of gold so far, he was still the fastest-progressing inspiration-type player.

“Wait,” Sykes reached out and stopped the two of them.
When he received their questioning gazes, he remained unmoved, his eyes fixed on the entrance of the ship.

“There’s movement.”

The next second, a strong and powerful arm had already rested on the threshold, the veins on it bulging, as if it were fighting against something.

“Don’t just stand there dazed! Lend a hand!” Old Li’s voice came out.

The few of them woke up as if from a dream.
With a ‘swish’, they rushed forward, grabbed his arm, and pulled him up.

“You’re actually okay?” Huahua said in pleasant surprise.

But Old Li didn’t have much time to explain.
Instead, he pulled him and rushed into the distance—

“Run!”

With this roar, the originally quiet interior of the shipwreck suddenly exploded.
A dense swarm of tentacles poured out from several windows, lashing out at the surroundings with the anger of being provoked by their prey.

“Run!” Yan Shuangwen grabbed Sykes’s arm and, to his surprise, dashed away with him into the distance.

“Smack!”

Several thick tentacles slammed fiercely onto the spot where they had just been, shattering the ship’s plank.

Before the two could feel relieved, a cry of alarm came from Hua Yibing’s side—

It turned out that a tentacle had wrapped around his tail and was dragging him towards the ship!
Old Li firmly grabbed Hua Yibing’s hand, forming a stalemate with the tentacle.

Seeing that one tentacle couldn’t drag him, the monster extended several more tentacles at once, vowing to get the prey at its mouth.

“Dangerous!”

Yan Shuangwen’s eyes narrowed.
He decisively raised the golden sword in his hand, wanting to rescue him.
The sword made contact with the fleshy limb, but it actually made the sound of colliding with metal, only leaving a bloody mark.

The monster cried out in pain, and the force with which it held Hua Yibing became even stronger.

‘This is bad, I can’t break its defense!’

“Try using magic,” Sykes said in time.

Yan Shuangwen glanced back at him and, without further hesitation, poured all his remaining magic power onto the sword’s edge and slashed fiercely at the tentacle.

The magic-infused longsword was like cutting melons and vegetables, severing all the waving tentacles.
The deep purple octopus legs fell off.
Although they had left the monster’s body, they were still twitching as if they were alive.

“What is this thing?” Hua Yibing was still in shock after being rescued.

“I don’t know either. When I was dragged in just now, I only saw a giant eye flashing with red light,” Old Li recalled the moment he was dragged in.

At that time, he was caught off guard and was fiercely pulled into the ship by the tentacle.
It was as dark inside the ship as it was outside.
The thing seemed to hate light sources.
Another tentacle struck, directly grabbing the energy lamp on his forehead and crushing it.

Old Li was dragged onto the ground.
Perhaps because he was in the monster’s territory, he felt the force of the tentacle wrapped around his waist seem to loosen a bit, and he instantly felt he had a chance—

Although he would return to the resurrection point after death, this game was too damn realistic!
Who would be willing to take a trip into the mouth of such a slimy monster for no reason?

His mind worked fast.
Under a flash of inspiration, he covered his fingernails with defensive magical power.
His originally fragile nails grew explosively, becoming tough and sharp, with a metallic luster, looking quite menacing.

Then, while the monster was unprepared, he violently slashed at the tentacle with his nails.

After hearing his experience, Hua Yibing couldn’t help but wonder how he would react if it were him.
He probably couldn’t do what…

He walked forward and hammered Old Li’s shoulder.
“You’re amazing, Captain. As expected of you.”

As for Sykes, while they were listening to the story, he silently caught the falling octopus leg and looked at it in his hand.

“A mutated one-eyed octopus. Its mind is occupied by madness caused by a curse, and it regards all intruders as edible prey. It’s highly poisonous,” he said, and everyone looked at him.

“So you’re saying… if we want to go into the ship to find treasure, we have to face this thing?”

Yan Shuangwen looked at the greatly changed shipwreck—the originally quaint wooden ship was now densely covered with purplish-black tentacles.
The tentacles squirmed and rolled like a swarm of active worms, completely enveloping the entire ship.

No, this could no longer be called a ship.

This was the monster’s lair!

At this moment, on the players’ character panels, everyone’s health had dropped to 3 points.

The countdown for everyone to return to the resurrection point had also begun.

30, 29, 28…

The shipwreck trembled, as if something was slowly turning over inside.

20, 19, 18…

Something squeezed out from the pitch-black doorway of the ship.

12, 11, 10…

The thing suddenly opened, a blood-red pupil filled with irrational madness and malice, staring fixedly at the few people present.

It was as if it was carving each person’s appearance and scent into its heart.

Although he knew he was at a safe distance, Hua Yibing couldn’t help but tremble.

5, 4, 3…

Due to his position, Hua Yibing saw something semi-transparent suddenly attack from the water.
Its target was precisely Yan Shuangwen’s position!

“Be careful!” He had a bad feeling in his heart.
Just as he was about to pounce over, he saw an arrow shoot through the air, grazing Yan Shuangwen’s cheek and fiercely striking the thing in the void, piercing it through.

The monster in the ship below seemed to have been hit in a vital spot and let out a true roar.
The sound was hoarse and strange, even more unbearable than nails scraping on a blackboard.

Hua Yibing looked at the source of the arrow in a daze.
The gray-haired, gray-tailed merman stood there holding a shiny silver bow, his eyes burning as he stared at his target, like a reliable and powerful warrior, steadfastly protecting his companion.

It was clearly a very ordinary appearance, yet at this moment, it was impossible for anyone to look away.

‘Scott, he…’

2, 1.

The countdown ended, health reached zero, everyone’s vision blurred, and the next second they appeared at the resurrection point.

“That was so cool!” Huahua’s eyes were shining.
Ever since he resurrected, he had been following Sykes, like a little tail that couldn’t be shaken off.
“Scott, what was that semi-transparent thing just now?”

“It was the octopus’s spiritual tentacle,” the merman explained.
“If you’re hit by a normal tentacle, you’ll at most return to the resurrection point, with no other effects. But if you’re hit by a spiritual tentacle, your panel stats during this period will drop significantly.”

‘To think that octopus had actually evolved a spiritual limb!’

Sykes hadn’t expected this at all.

A normal attack would send a player directly back with a return ticket, but a mental attack would cause damage to the consciousness body under their energy membrane.

Although under the protection of his contract, it wouldn’t affect the real world, and they would recover after a few days, their in-game stats would be directly halved during the recovery period.
In severe cases, they might lose 90% of their magic power.

This was definitely not what Sykes wanted to see.
After all, he was still hoping for the 123 team to find the clues left by the elder for him.

“Thanks,” Yan Shuangwen roughly knew what had happened.
He swam over to thank the merman.

Although he liked marine creatures, he didn’t love them to the point of being their food, and he didn’t want to carry a weakening debuff for several days, as that would undoubtedly hold his partners back.

“This BOSS… actually has such a skill?” Old Li frowned, thinking of a countermeasure.
“That ship is its territory. We have to think of a way to lure it out, otherwise there’s no way to gain an advantage.”

“But how can we get it to come out?” Huahua thought of that single, angry eye and shivered subconsciously.

“We have to think of a way,” Yan Shuangwen pinched the bridge of his nose, his brain also working at high speed.
He went over the skills of the few of them in his mind again and again.

Sykes stood beside them with his arms crossed, watching them deep in thought, waiting for the team’s discussion result.

At this moment, the Rainbow Fountain, which was the resurrection point, had new movement again.
Countless players were spat out with a ‘pupu pu’, falling into a pile on the ground.

Counting the time, it was exactly twenty minutes since the main group of players had entered the outer lands to explore.

Sykes even saw a very familiar person among them, the strange girl who had identified him as an NPC.

Ge Feifei had just returned from the pitch-black seawater with her sister.
Seeing the light and this rainbow-like light-ribbon fountain again, she was almost moved to tears—

“Sob sob sob, I finally see light again. I must bring a lamp next time. The deep sea is actually so scary!”

Ge Jiao patted her silly sister’s head comfortingly and looked around.

Everyone had a look of lingering fear or regret on their faces, looking like they had been eliminated and sent back due to insufficient preparation, except for…

Her gaze fixed on Old Li and the others, who had serious expressions and seemed to be discussing something.

“By the way, sister, why don’t we need to eat after being in the game for so long?” Ge Feifei suddenly asked in confusion.

“Eat? Why do we need to…”
Ge Jiao was still sizing up the people around her, subconsciously repeating her sister’s words, but the next second her mind cleared—

‘That’s right, why haven’t we needed to eat for so long?’

The people around also heard this sentence.
There was a moment of silence, followed by an outbreak of whispers.

“Have you eaten anything since you came to Sea Realm?”

“No, I’m busy moving bricks and running dungeons all day, where would I find time to eat?”

“Except for that person who does eating broadcasts, it seems no one has eaten anything, right?”

“I’ve drunk the juice of a coral tree fruit, that’s quite refreshing…”

“Wait, I feel like I’m a little hungry?”

“…Me too.”

“Grumble.”

Ge Jiao slowly lowered her head, feeling her stomach seem to shrink into a ball, continuously sending protests to her brain.

‘Why am I suddenly so hungry?’