Chapter 38: A New Clue

[Poisoned: A terrible poison has corroded your body. Health -2 per minute. Duration: until death.]

Under normal circumstances, such a negative status wouldn’t pose a major obstacle.
But this was in the outer sea.
The combination of the curse and poison double BUFF caused the health on their panels to drop by a full 7 points every minute!

This was adding frost to snow for the few of them whose health wasn’t very good to begin with—especially Old Li, who had been tanking the BOSS head-on and had taken a few tentacle hits.

He told everyone with a bitter smile that his health was only down to 10 points.

And after Old Li couldn’t hold on any longer and returned to the resurrection point, they would be short of a stable presence to attract the BOSS’s attention.
It was hard to imagine how a few squishy players who hadn’t trained their bodies much could achieve a last-ditch counter-kill.

They had to end this before Old Li’s health reached zero! Everyone present understood this.

But how difficult was that!

The octopus had now lost most of its tentacles, but it had entered a pre-death frenzy mode.
Its sinister gaze was fixed on the crowd, just waiting for some overconfident merman to come forward and die.

As the captain, Old Li first calmed everyone’s emotions, but his mind was racing—how could he break this deadlock?

“Since the method of dragging it to death won’t work, let’s just target its heart directly,” Sykes suddenly spoke.
“The three hearts of a one-eyed octopus are located in the center of the largest ring, at the very top of its head, and in the innermost part of its eye.”

Old Li’s eyes lit up.
After exchanging a few words with Sykes about the plan, it was decided.

“Everyone, there isn’t much time left. Let’s use this plan with the highest chance of winning, but also the riskiest. The next part is up to each and every one of us!” he laughed heartily, rushing straight towards the BOSS with an air of fearlessness.

The remaining few also understood their respective tasks, nodded, and followed closely behind, rushing towards the BOSS in a desperate manner.

The octopus didn’t have many tentacles left.
It was confident it could hold one person, hold two people, but it wasn’t confident it could hold everyone.

It decided to pick on the weakest first.
Almost half of its tentacles all attacked Ge Feifei, the fire mage—deal with the weakest and most annoying one first!

Whether it was because her physical skills were not refined or her reaction was too slow, Ge Feifei failed to escape the BOSS’s attack with a twist.
She was first whipped into a few tumbles in the air, her eyes tightly closed, her body motionless as she fell straight down.
She had actually been knocked unconscious!

“Feifei!” Ge Jiao’s pupils shrank, and she was about to rush towards her sister—

But the octopus was faster!
Several of its tentacles blocked Ge Jiao’s path, ready to strike, while another tentacle wrapped around Ge Feifei’s tail, forcefully dragging her towards its mouth.

‘Eat this damn fish, eat it!’ the octopus thought viciously.
It needed more energy to restore its lost limbs.

Just as the unconscious Ge Feifei was about to die in the fish’s mouth, she showed a victorious smile and suddenly opened her eyes.

“You fell for it, didn’t you? When grandma was playing dead to survive in games, your code hadn’t even been written yet!”
Ge Feifei looked at the giant octopus eye that was so close to her.
The right hand that had been hidden behind her back suddenly shot forward, and she fiercely threw a bottle at the eye.
It was the item Old Li had given her—[Powerful Disinfectant].

“Didn’t you say it’s a powerful disinfectant? I see this purple potato of yours is all poisonous and very dirty!”

She exhausted her last bit of magic power.
Several large fireballs were chained together, and as they pushed the disinfectant closer to the giant eye, they also burned through the bottle’s outer shell.

BOOM!

The disinfectant bottle exploded, and the liquid inside splashed all over, almost covering more than half of the eye.

The flash of the explosion was spectacular, but the effect didn’t seem to be very ideal.
The octopus just flinched in pain and then shrank back.
It didn’t have the expected destructive power.

‘Could it be that this disinfectant doesn’t work on octopuses?? That can’t be!’

Hua Yibing, who was originally fighting the BOSS with a hammer, shivered.
Without a second thought, the blessing skill followed up—”Strong Luck!”

A faint golden light flashed on Ge Feifei’s body.
Success!

The octopus, which hadn’t reacted much just now, suddenly let out a shrill cry.
Large white spots appeared on its red eye, and the intimidating red color faded inch by inch.

If it were the original octopus, it might not have been afraid of this.
But now, for the sake of revenge, it had already opened the poison sac in its body, and the poison had spread throughout its entire body.
Its eye was inevitably contaminated by the poison.
And this poison happened to be within the targeted range of the disinfectant!

‘So Feifei was pretending.’
Ge Jiao breathed a sigh of relief, understanding that she had been disturbed because she was concerned.
But then she also pulled herself together—since her sister had completed her task so well, she, as the older sister, couldn’t lose face either!

Ge Jiao’s fingers spread slightly, and the magic power in her body poured out, her own Mind Domain enveloping the octopus’s torso, reducing defense.

…Taking advantage… Old Li’s five fingers formed a claw, and he climbed up the BOSS’s skin, digging fiercely into the center of the ring.
Yan Shuangwen landed on the BOSS’s head, thrusting a golden sword downwardly.
Sykes drew his bow and arrow, aimed at the quasi giant eye, the arrow, with a fierce sound of breaking through the air, attacked the octopus’s greatest weakness.

But unexpectedly, the only one among them who was making smooth progress was Yan Shuangwen.

The octopus, was successfully pierced by his sword.
Black blood continuously overflowed from the wound.
With the poison BUFF, Yan Shuangwen also became the first to return to the resurrection point.

Old Li felt as if his hand was hitting on a steel plate.
His full-strength strike only managed to break the BOSS’s skin, still far from the heart inside.
Looking at his remaining health, he ruthlessly and directly activated his burst skill—choosing to increase his stats, attack!

Another purplish-black heart was fiercely dug out and exploded.
The octopus had retreated, it no longer insisted on killing all the players, but tried to shrink into the shipwreck.
But how could Sykes allow that?

The previous arrow was stuck on the un-corroded crystal.
The thickness of this eye exceeded his expectations, but what did it matter?

Sykes took a deep breath.
There were only three arrows left in his quiver.
He took one out and nocked it on the bow.

The arrow shot from the merman’s hand was fiercely nailed to the tail of the previous arrow that had penetrated deep into the eyeball, forcefully pushing it in by the length of an arrow.
Then another one.

Just as Sykes was about to shoot the third arrow, he suddenly noticed some unusual movement.
He flicked his tail and floated up a bit.
Something grazed his tail fin and swept past fiercely.

It was the spiritual tentacle!

Sykes felt a piece of the consciousness of his tail being corroded.
The feeling of being offended, coupled with a sluggishness he had never felt before, made a rare bit of anger rise in his heart.

Next, Hua Yibing, who had been looking over here out of distraction, discovered that the aura of his usually silent and unremarkable teammate had changed.
His eyes narrowed slightly, like an enraged beast.

He had only seen this kind of gaze on the python his brother kept at home.

Then, Hua Yibing saw him pull the bowstring to its fullest and suddenly shoot towards a certain place.

The next second, the almost transparent spiritual tentacle in front of the octopus was directly pierced by the arrow, revealing its true form.
But that wasn’t all.
The huge force made the arrow’s flight unstoppable.
It continued forward and struck directly on the tail of the previous arrow.

Hua Yibing felt as if he had heard the ‘puchi’ sound of the heart being pierced.

The octopus let out a final roar.
The tentacles that had been flaunting their might just now became stiff and powerless, falling to the ground one by one.

[Congratulations to players Old Li, Number Two, Hua Nord, Scott, I Want to Fight Ten, and Qiao for completing the first wild BOSS kill!]

Huahua looked up at Scott’s position.
The other had an energy lamp tied to his forehead and was looking down from above.
This arrogant and cold posture made his heart stir, and then he looked at the other with even more admiration!

The stream room’s recording faithfully captured this scene, and the audience had almost gone crazy—

[Mom, what did I see? One arrow, two birds!! No, seven stars in a row!]

[Is this archery that actually exists in the human world?]

[Ahhhhhhh, why can transparent Scott be so handsome now! I declare that I’m immediately unfollowing and climbing the wall for him!!]

[I’m totally in love with this fierce and ruthless little brother.]

[What is a high-light moment! What is a one-hit kill! Am I watching a movie?]

[@《XXXXX》@《XXXXX》 come and get beaten, this is what you call a blockbuster!]

The BOSS was defeated, and next was the time to collect the loot.

The people still alive on the scene only had about two minutes left.
Ge Jiao and Hua Yibing rushed directly towards the shipwreck.
Ge Feifei hesitated for a moment, stuffed a few broken tentacles on the ground into her backpack, and then also followed.

Seeing that the players had all gone in, Sykes also flicked his tail and followed.
When he got close to the shipwreck, for some reason, he had a faint premonition—Roba’s message might just be here.

This octopus was truly worthy of being a long-established BOSS.
There were many old chests in the corners of the cabin.
Were they perhaps the cargo carried by humans when they went out to sea?

Hua Yibing was the first to open the one closest to him—whoa, a pearly white light flashed in his eyes.
He saw large, orange-sized pearls piled up in the chest, filling the space to the brim.

If it were anyone else, they might have been so happy they didn’t know what to do.
But these things were not worth mentioning in the players’ eyes—after all, even a gold-inlaid-jade hoe and a gem-encrusted cup could be easily exchanged for with reputation points.
Why pursue pearls?

Hua Yibing felt the same.
He let out a regretful ‘tsk’, then went to open the next chest.

It was like opening a blind box.
You never knew what would be inside.
His face turned ashen.
He slammed the chest shut with a ‘thump’, closing the large sea snake that was lazily flicking its tongue at him back inside.

Fortunately, the third chest didn’t disappoint him.
This chest was filled with bottles and jars.
He picked up a bottle to look at.
It contained some kind of pink liquid, and when he shook it slightly, fine bubbles appeared.

‘Is this a potion?’ His eyes lit up.
‘Good stuff!’

Although most of these bottles had been shattered in past turbulence, and a large part were empty, there were still a dozen or so that had survived.
Take them, take them all! He put all of them into his backpack.

Over there, Ge Jiao and Ge Feifei were opening chests in the opposite direction of Hua Yibing.
Not long after, the two sisters had a few broken weapons in their hands.

No one would dislike the activity of opening chests.
Even Ge Jiao, who didn’t smile much, now had a faint smile on her face.

“Scott, aren’t you going to take something?” Hua Yibing remembered his big partner.
He called out to him, “What were you looking for before? I’ll help you look for it!”

“It’s a quest item. It should be something made of paper. Please help me keep an eye out for it. I only want that,” Sykes scanned all the things present and then averted his gaze with some disappointment.

“Don’t be discouraged!”
Huahua, who had just been won over by his teammate, couldn’t stand this.
He casually picked up a few items into his bag and began to look for paper-based quest items for Sykes.

Ge Jiao also heard him.
She and her sister exchanged a glance, also gave up on continuing to search for things, and instead focused all their attention on finding paper-based items.

There were only a few dozen seconds left, but it was enough for them to search the entire cabin.

Nothing.

Sykes’s premonition came to nothing.
His body couldn’t help but stiffen, and even his ear fins drooped a little.

‘Maybe it’s in another place,’ he told himself.

The health bar entered a countdown.
Everyone was returning with a full load, quietly waiting for the teleportation.

Ge Feifei breathed a sigh of relief.
She had a feeling that everything was settled.
The lingering fear of almost entering the octopus’s mouth also welled up, and she felt her tail go soft.
She was originally a spontaneous person, and besides, she was surrounded by acquaintances, so she simply sat down on the ground.

The people around her returned to the resurrection point one by one, and in the end, she was the only one left.
The girl idly counted the chests, passing the last of her time.

Perhaps it was because of the different perspective that what she saw was also different.
Just a moment before she was about to return to the resurrection point, Ge Feifei suddenly discovered that there seemed to be some words faintly on the side panel of the chest on her right.

Time didn’t allow her to think too much.
She decisively jumped up with a ‘biu’, and with the posture of a hungry tiger pouncing on its prey, she hugged the chest into her arms, and in the second before her body turned into specks of light, she put it into her backpack.

“Scott, do you see if it’s… eh? Where did he go?”
She stood in front of the rainbow fountain at the resurrection point, looking around in confusion.

Ge Jiao led her silly sister back to the house, planning to organize their gains.
“Are you looking for Scott? He seems to have left already.”

“Is that so? Sis, I saw a chest before I came back. It seemed to have words on it.”

After returning to the house, Ge Feifei took out the item.
“Do you think it could be Scott’s quest item?”

She was a little curious and brought the chest a little closer.
“Your decision is the most correct choice for the merfolk clan. Go find the long-lived species… 2?”

When Ge Feifei found Scott through Old Li and the others, his expression seemed to have changed a little, and then he seemed to have understood something and smiled in relief.

It was strange to say.
Although he had an ordinary appearance, when Scott smiled, he became inexplicably lively and vivid, making it impossible to look away.

“Thank you very much. This is very important to me,” he said very seriously.

“No, no, it was your great contribution in the end that mattered most,” Ge Feifei waved her hand and asked with some curiosity, “Speaking of which, is this a main quest? I saw the words ‘merfolk clan’ written on it. Is it related to the lord’s background?”

Sykes held the chest and pondered for a moment, then repeated Ella’s prompt, “It’s a prerequisite for the main quest. The main quest for all players will be opened soon.”

“A main quest for all players? As expected, those who team up with big shots are also big shots!” Ge Feifei’s eyes widened.

When Sykes returned to the merman tower with the chest, he still felt a little amused and exasperated.
When he saw the handwriting on the chest, he already understood why the information this time was written in such an unreliable place.

The person who left the message was the youngest elder of the merfolk clan, Laian, and also the merman with the strongest and most accurate prophetic talent.
He had always been known for his unconventional personality, his mind full of all sorts of strange and wonderful ideas.
He had even led Roba and the others around to play pranks before.
When he was caught by the great elder and reprimanded, his meek and submissive appearance blended in perfectly with the cubs who were thousands of years younger than him.

If it were him, he would indeed be capable of writing important information on a chest.

But if he were to confront him face to face now, he would probably say something like, “It was fate that guided me to write it in that position. Believe me, that was the most suitable position.”

Besides this, what surprised Sykes even more was the content of his message.

[Your decision is the most correct choice for the merfolk clan. Go find the long-lived species.]
Behind it was a 2 with a smiley face drawn on it.

‘Could it be that so long ago, Laian had already foreseen everything that is happening today? This decision… does it refer to his decision to summon the players?’

Indeed, if it weren’t for Ella, this visitor from another world, if he hadn’t thought of using the players to obtain otherworldly energy, perhaps even if he had stood guard in the Sea of Death until the end of his life, he would not have been able to get a single clue about the whereabouts of his clansmen, let alone see those messages under the shield of the rules.

‘Go find the long-lived species.’

These few words were repeatedly pondered by Sykes in his heart.
What meaning did this want to convey to him?

Could it be that the elders had passed on the message at the very end, delivering it into the hands of the long-lived species?
The merman had no way of knowing.
His usually clever brain was now a bit of a mess.
Every time it involved his clansmen, he would become a little anxious, and this anxiety was the great enemy of reason, and also the fuse for wrong decisions.

He simply dismantled the entire chest, looking for it inside and out again.
He actually found another sentence on the back of that wooden board.
The sentence seemed to have been thought of by someone else at the last minute and then casually added on.
The handwriting looked extremely sloppy.

“Let nature take its course,” Sykes read.

Now, after several hundred years, he finally understood just how powerful Laian’s prophetic ability could be.
Elder Laian, who had once been keen on mingling with children and enthusiastically engaged in destructive pranks, actually knew everything.
He had seen everything, but still maintained his purest original intention.

[Master.]

Ella flew in front of Sykes.
Her expressionless little face actually showed a few obvious signs of worry.

Sykes’s eyelashes trembled, and he fluttered them a few times in a panic, as if to hide his feelings just now.

“What’s wrong, Ella?”

[It’s about the cooking competition,] the red-haired, red-eyed little sprite circled in the air and landed on the desk.