Chapter 47: A Strange Cave

After the little octopus was sprayed from head to tentacles with disinfectant, it seemed to have entered a state of self-isolation.
The octopus ball it had previously curled into seemed to curl up even tighter.
After being placed on the table by Sykes, it silently rolled a few times on its own and shrank into the corner between the pen holders to self-isolate.

“What exactly is that smell?”
Sykes was still pondering this question.
Tom’s body might have been a coincidence, but was the octopus lord’s body also one?

Two identical coincidences?

Anyway, Sykes didn’t believe it.
He was on to this matter and became suspicious of the dark shadow Old Li had mentioned—since the dark shadow had stolen the octopus from the territory and swallowed it whole, it must be related to that smell.

In short, it was either the sirens or the dark shadow.
Anyway, one of them had to be the source of that disgusting smell.
The latter was highly suspicious, but the former couldn’t get away either.
Sirens, that kind of creature, were always associated with conspiracies and tricks.
Anyway, it was always their fault.
Sykes thought willfully.

The little octopus on the side sensed the even colder atmosphere around this big fish and once again shrank itself forcefully into the deepest part of the crack.
It didn’t care even if it was squeezed into an octopus meat pancake.
It seemed only a narrow space could make it feel more secure.

The scene returns to the player team.

“Old Li, you’re really something. You can even get a special mission just by throwing a meat patty.”
Huahua affectionately bumped Old Li’s shoulder.
On the surface, he was praising him lavishly, but in reality, he was secretly praising himself.
“But of course, the one who contributed the most was still me. I am the father of the bomb meat patty!”

“If it weren’t for Scott’s help, your meat patty would have taken six minutes to explode. By then, thirty health points would have been deducted. Who could wait that long?”
Although Yan Shuangwen had already reached a reconciliation with Huahua in their joint battles, the subconscious habit of bickering had not been successfully changed.

It was also strange.
He, a cold and emotionless big researcher, had actually ended up playing a holographic game and even became friends with the roommate he had previously disliked the most.
This point had even surprised Yan Shuangwen’s mother, who had started fake crying to his father, “Old Yan, look, Wenwen has finally grown up,” and other similar words, which made Yan Shuangwen not know whether to laugh or cry.

“Then, then, then, then, then, half of the credit for my genius idea is also mine!” Hua Yibing was a little hesitant, then retorted stubbornly.

The two were bickering with each other, while Old Li’s brow was furrowed.
Ever since he had left the merman tower, he had been studying the few short lines on the mission bar.

“I feel that this mission is probably related to the main storyline.”
In the end, Old Li let out a long sigh, his tone certain.

“Main storyline? Isn’t this just a special mission?”
Hua and Yan stopped arguing upon hearing this and gathered around Old Li.

“Look here,” Old Li pointed to the three words “long-lived species” in the mission, signaling them to look.

The original words of the mission were:

[Special Mission · Lift the Curse: The noble Lord needs you to find certain materials to lift the curse of this long-lived species. The speed at which you complete the mission will determine the Lord’s evaluation of you.]

“Is this the first time a clear [Definition] concept has appeared in the game?”
Old Li said his judgment while thinking, “Just like the title [Lord], it may represent status, or it may prove strength. And the title of long-lived species, it’s very obvious that it defines some special races.”

“What exactly is special? Combined with some of my speculations about the lord, I’ll tentatively guess it’s the literal meaning—long-lived species are those creatures with a long lifespan, such as…”

“Such as merfolk?” Yan Shuangwen suddenly interjected.

Seeing his roommate answer, Hua Yibing was not to be outdone and answered, “Perhaps also that big snail named Tom who also called himself uncle?”

Old Li nodded.
“That’s right, the lord is clearly in that category of long-lived. Whether it’s his study, or the dilapidated state of this domain in the beginning, and some of the things the other party inadvertently revealed when speaking, I can probably judge that the lord is also a so-called ‘long-lived species’.”

Yan Shuangwen understood.
“No wonder that big fish spoke of the octopus so lightly, saying ‘that octopus.’ Assuming that long-lived species are special existences in this world, a normal person should first use ‘this long-lived species’ to refer to the other party, right? I think long-lived species shouldn’t be common in any worldview.”

The two teammates, responsible for intelligence and puzzle-solving, were verifying their guesses with each other, while Hua Yibing became more and more confused as he listened, deeply realizing the painful fact that he did not belong to that field—in his opinion, it was just a very common mission with a few very ordinary sentences.
Why could these people analyze so much from it?

“Wait, wait, so this and the main storyline…” he realized a key point.

Old Li, as if seeing his own child had figured it out, very gratifiedly gave Hua Yibing an approving thumbs up.
“Don’t you feel that this game, compared to the holographic games we usually play… there are only four NPCs—like…”

“Even the scope of our activities is very small. Outside the territory is the outer region. We need to continuously improve our strength to continue exploring the edge of the Outer Realm.”

Yan Shuangwen suddenly thought of something.
He flipped through the completed mission bar.
“Speaking of information, in the mission to hand over the octopus to the lord, didn’t the mission reward say that the lord would tell us some news?”

Old Li’s eyes lit up.
“That’s right, that’s it! Remember our first main storyline mission? We unlocked magic and had the ability to explore farther places. Then this time, the mission points to [Long-lived Species]. Maybe it’s the target of the next expansion pack. I guess at the end of the outer region, there might be other creatures, snails, octopuses, long-lived species and sea species other than merfolk…”

The more Old Li spoke, the more excited he became.
His keen sense as a high-level player made him realize where the game was more interesting.
“The game developers of Sea Realm are playing a big game of chess!”

Huahua had already given up struggling.
Just listening to the conclusion made him a little dizzy.
He casually complained to get himself involved, “Maybe this is still a war game, to conquer the world for the lord, and by the way, enrich the diversity of species in the domain.”

After saying that, he saw the look of sudden realization in Old Li and Yan Shuangwen’s eyes.

“Wait, wait, I was just saying it casually, hey!”

Whether the speculation was reliable or not, that was something to be verified later.
Right now, the team’s first priority was to find the mission item required by the lord to lift the curse—if they couldn’t even complete the mission, let alone whether the main storyline could be unlocked, the reward at hand would fly away.

Old Li led the way in front, while Hua Yibing and Yan Shuangwen followed with some difficulty behind.
Finally, they arrived at a medium-height underwater rock mountain.

Between the two rocks of the rock mountain, a gap had clearly been blasted out by something.
Half of the rock wall was broken, revealing a hidden cave inside.
The size of the cave entrance was about the width that a big fish could carefully pass through.

“In ancient times, there was Yugong who moved mountains. Today, there is Old Li who blows up mountains,” Hua Yibing lamented, eagerly taking out a meat patty to see if he could blow up any surprises.
Then he was forced to put it back by a grim-faced Old Li.

“Put it back, put it back. What if you blow up the materials?”

The group first searched the area around the cave entrance but didn’t find anything unusual.
To be on the safe side, they still picked some common plants from the cave entrance and put them in their backpacks, just in case.

Then, only this cave was left unsearched.
The three of them looked at each other and drilled into the cave entrance one by one.

The cave entrance was extremely narrow at first.
They could only pass through carefully so as not to get stuck.
They still bumped into the rocks at the top.
But after walking for a certain distance, the road suddenly became much wider, wide enough for three people to walk side by side, and there was still a lot of surplus.

They were vigilant of their surroundings all the way, but didn’t find anything unusual.
Finally, the group smoothly arrived at a fork in the road.

There were a total of three pitch-black roads in front of them, and the way ahead was unknown.
In order to go back and report sooner, the three of them decided to split up.
Yan Shuangwen chose the leftmost, Old Li chose the rightmost, and Hua Yibing chose the middle road.

“Based on my countless experiences reading novels, the road in the middle is usually the protagonist’s exclusive road!” Hua Yibing swam in first with full confidence.

But he seemed to have forgotten that on the protagonist’s exclusive road, besides being full of secret manuals, treasures, and a portable old grandpa, there were often countless accidents.

For example, he had only been swimming for two minutes when he saw countless ghostly green light spots suddenly light up in the darkness ahead.
The light spots flickered, very much like the eyes of some creature.

Huahua: “!!!!!”

And weren’t they eyes! He turned the energy lamp on his head brighter and saw a pile of fish with extremely flat bodies, like paper, hanging on the wall.
They had huge eyes, and fangs that were completely inconsistent with their own bodies, exposing from their mouths—

“Why do fish grow such teeth, ahhhhhhh!!”
Hua Yibing decisively cast an upgraded version of the group blinding skill and continued to charge forward crazily while wailing all the way.

Even if he died, he would die at the finish line!

Even though his speed was already his fastest, he still felt his tail getting heavier and heavier.
Hua Yibing didn’t dare to look back at all, but from the continuously dropping health on his panel, there was a strange fish biting his tail.

While fleeing for his life, Hua Yibing could still find joy in suffering and imagine what his tail should look like now—with the length of that strange fish’s teeth, it was probably nailed to his tail right now, like some kind of decoration.
Isn’t this a mutated version of an earring—a tail ring!

Pfft, he could actually make himself laugh on the run.
It could be considered a unique optimistic talent.

The road seemed to have reached its end.
This was a clearly much more spacious space, but it was piled with the bones of various creatures.
Some were clearly fish skeletons, while some were even stranger.

Can you really find what the lord needs among so many bones?
Hua Yibing looked back at the fanged fish nailed to his tail, doubting whether he could complete the mission.

Forget it, maybe this is the right way?
I’ll just pack up whatever I see and go back!

He stuffed a large handful of lemon candies into his mouth with one hand.
His baby face was wrinkled into a ball from the sourness.
He finally pulled himself back from the brink of death.

Hua Yibing quickly rummaged through the pile of skeletons.
The stench of old bones rose with his rummaging actions, making Huahua feel nauseous.
How could it be so smelly!
Was that octopus really in such a smelly place in the beginning?

Just at this moment, he turned over something that seemed to be a turtle shell, and there was something underneath.

At this time, the large group of strange fish chasing behind also pounced over.
Hua Yibing didn’t have time to think too much.
He grabbed the thing he had just seen and threw it into his backpack.
The next second, he found his health drop like a cliff, and he was sent directly back to the resurrection point.