Chapter 145: The Ark of Creation 19

Chapter 145: The Ark of Creation 19

The remaining three players emerged from behind the desk and the antique shelf.

Monkey cautiously approached and checked the Pigman's nose for breath, muttering in disbelief, "...He's really dead."

There was no sign of life; he was thoroughly deceased.

Mr. Cat had struck swiftly, accurately, and ruthlessly, plunging the blade directly into the Pigman's heart.

After a brief moment of confusion, Monkey quickly became excited. "So, this pair of scissors can really cut through the headgear!"

Monkey's gaze fell on Qin Fei's neck.

The stitching that connected the gray cat head to the human neck had already been severed, but because Qin Fei had pulled his shirt collar high, the Pigman hadn't noticed when he first entered the room.

Qin Fei had used the scissors to carefully cut through the stitches around his neck.

The scissors were an important item, and Cynthia had specifically reminded Qin Fei about them.

From the moment he found the scissors, Qin Fei began pondering their purpose.

And the picture on the scissor sheath gave him some clues.

"Half human, half animal." Qin Fei took out the scissors and placed them on Hadsay's desk.

This pattern easily sparked some associations, such as the scissors playing a role in the transformation between human and animal identities.

The small piece of string that fell out of the protective case further confirmed Qin Fei's speculation.

When the players saw those strings, they felt a sense of familiarity.

This was because during the two days they had spent in the scenario, they had seen it many times before, albeit in a somewhat hidden location, so many players hadn't paid attention.

It was precisely the thread used to sew the animal headgear.

Sure enough, after Qin Fei used the scissors to cut through the thread, the cat headgear became nothing more than an ornament on his head.

The headgear lost its function of defining the player's identity, allowing Qin Fei to successfully send the Pigman away with a single strike.

"That's strange," Mee Lamb said, somewhat puzzled. "Back in the golden hall's private room, didn't these NPCs also take off their human skin masks? Why couldn't the players attack them at the time?"

When players removed their headgear, they transformed back into humans.

But when the NPCs removed their headgear, they didn't seem to revert to animals.

"Perhaps there's something else that turns the NPCs' identities into 'humans'," Duck mused. "If we could find that thing, would we be able to do whatever we want in this scenario?"

The Pigman had said that animals couldn't harm humans.

Now, the players had obtained the key item to regain their human identities.

Next, if they could turn the NPCs back into animals, victory in the scenario would be within easy reach.

"We have to figure out how to find it," Mee Lamb stared at the Pigman's corpse on the ground. "What should we do with this thing now?"

They needed to deal with it somehow.

Otherwise, once they left, the body would likely be discovered soon.

"Throw it in the sea." Qin Fei calmly uttered three shocking words.

He had just tried, and like Qin Fei's own body in the snow mountain scenario, the Pigman's corpse couldn't be stored in the portable space or the black crystal ring.

As Qin Fei spoke, he removed the cat head.

The "player character's" balloon head was exposed to the air.

Monkey and Duck were startled by the slightly sinister cartoon face.

"Holy shit! I get it now."

Monkey lowered his voice and whispered to Duck, "This NPC must have a special identity. Look at his face, doesn't it have a similar vibe to the room we just went into?"

The balloon head and the toy house seemed like a perfect match!

Duck suddenly understood. "No wonder the toy room appeared suddenly earlier."

It must have been intentionally created by the NPC.

In the live stream chat, the audience was speechless.

Well understood, don't understand it next time!

Monkey was a B-level streamer who, aside from being a bit of a joker, had no other distinctive features. He didn't have many regular fans to begin with, and now they were all covering their faces in despair in front of the light screens:

"Brother Monkey, please! Don't think anymore!!

If you keep thinking, you'll lose all your dignity!

Mee Lamb, Monkey, and Duck used the scissors to cut the strings on their headgear while Qin Fei silently searched the Pigman's body, hoping to gain new leads through a thorough search.

His luck wasn't great, as the Pigman had nothing on him.

Qin Fei turned the Pigman's body inside out but found nothing.

The Balloon Man stood there slightly displeased.

After a moment of contemplation, he seemed to have an idea and suddenly reached out, tearing off the stretched and distorted human skin from the Pigman's face.

"Holy shit, what are you doing?!"

Monkey's pupils quaked.

The way his NPC ally peeled the face off someone was too swift and decisive, it was rather terrifying.

Qin Fei picked up the human skin and held it aloft in mid-air to examine it. The skin was translucent under the crystal chandelier.

Perfect.

Although there were no other gains, this item alone was enough to make up for their efforts.

Qin Fei was content.

His face showed little emotion, but an unbridled joy radiated from him.

Monkey was utterly perplexed. "Bro, what's the use of this thing?"

To put it on his own face and disguise himself as a pigman?

But Pigman Hadsay had a pig's head, while Qin Fei had a standard oval-shaped, featureless head atop his neck.

The effect would be worlds apart after putting on the human skin; the NPCs wouldn't be fooled unless they were blind.

Qin Fei didn't elaborate further, he waved his hand mysteriously. "I have my uses for it."

Time was pressing, the players couldn't linger in Hadsay's office any longer.

If they wanted to dispose of the body at sea, parading around with a 300-pound pig corpse on their shoulders was out of the question.

The players chose to leave through the window.

Hadsay's office faced the ship's stern, where few people usually passed by. However, perhaps due to Qin Fei and his group's escape, security patrols on the entire cruise ship were being strengthened.

The players hid behind the window and observed for a while, quickly finding a pattern.

"The NPCs downstairs come by every five minutes," Qin Fei silently counted in his mind.

He opened the window outward and lifted the pigman's collar. "Come help me."

Five minutes was ample time for the players.

Destroying evidence and escaping the scene happened simultaneously. The four players first threw the pigman's body over the wall. The heavy meat pile landed on the wooden deck of the cruise ship with a loud thud.

Fortunately, it didn't attract the patrolling NPCs.

The four of them then jumped out the window onto the deck.

As soon as they landed, two grabbed the hands, two grabbed the head, and they lifted the pigman's body, swinging it forcefully.

Like tossing a sack, their movements were swift and clean.

The moment the body hit the water, a huge splash erupted.

"Ptooey!" Sea water splashed Monkey's face.

Monkey reached out to wipe his eyes haphazardly, but Mi Yang had half her body hanging over the ship's railing, staring at the sea surface in shock. "Holy shit, what's that thing?"

The seawater beside the cruise ship was clear. With the white foam and rolling waves, one could see the pigman's body rapidly sinking to the seabed.

At the same time, a group of large, oddly shaped creatures, resembling fish, emerged from nowhere.

Those strange fish quickly converged on the pigman's body.

The sea turned dark, as the strange fish devoured the pigman's body.

But soon, the school of fish dispersed, leaving the body still relatively intact, continuing to sink until it vanished without a trace.

"Whew..." Monkey drew a sharp breath. "These fish are really ugly."

They looked like sea monsters, enough to send shivers down one's spine just by looking at them.

Qin Fei glanced at Monkey. "Did you notice anything?"

"What am I supposed to notice?" Monkey was confused. "Uh, these fish don't seem to like pork very much?"

Qin Fei: "..."

Qin Fei couldn't fathom how this idiot had survived this long?

Was it because of his exceptional skill in clinging to powerful allies?

But soon, he realized the issue.

Qin Fei had found the two notes in the pigman's office. After showing them to Mi Yang, he stored them away in his inventory. Monkey hadn't even touched the edge of the paper.

Sorry, he cursed too soon.

Qin Fei cleared his throat. "Do you want to know what kind of fish these are?"

Monkey nodded vigorously.

"This type of fish is called a Pigeon Fish." Qin Fei dropped this cryptic statement and turned to walk towards the stairs leading to the lower deck.

"Don't follow me," he said to Mi Yang and the others. "Find a place to hide first. Personally, I suggest you change your clothes and blend into the gaming area."

Monkey, Duck, and Sheep weren't singular animals like Cat in the instance. One more or one less wouldn't be obvious.

Monkey didn't expect the NPC to abandon them so soon, he was alarmed. "What about you?"

Qin Fei spoke in a casual tone, "I still have matters to attend to."

He needed to find a suitable base for the pig's head he held in his hands.

After all, in this instance, pig heads weren't exclusive to Hadsay's neck.

...

The lower deck of the ship was dark and quiet.

It was already late afternoon in the instance, and the animal game was in full swing. There wasn't a soul to be seen on the lower deck.

It seemed that news of the pig-man's gruesome death was still well-hidden.

Qin Fei sent the ghost child ahead to scout, his first line of defense.

The stitches on his neck, now gone and leaving only a row of brown, pinprick-sized scabs, served as his second line of defense.

Now, Qin Fei's status was vastly different from before.

Even if something went awry in the lower deck, he wouldn't be immediately thrown into the meat grinder by an NPC.

This sudden elevation in status filled Qin Fei with a rare sense of pleasure.

The slender balloon man walked alone through the dim corridor, his leather shoes making barely audible crisp sounds against the floor.

His hands were behind his back, humming a tune so soft that only he and the audience could barely hear it.

The face painted with eyes and mouth using a paint pen showed no expression, yet it managed to captivate the full attention of the viewers behind the camera lens.

The audience in the live stream was almost entranced by Qin Fei.

"Wife! Wife looks so hot in a suit!"

"Wah wah wah, why is this happening? I always thought I was infatuated with Wife's beautiful face, but why am I still so captivated even after Wife changed their head?!"

"Honey, this means we're soulmates with the streamer~"

...

In a short amount of time, Qin Fei had obtained a human identity and eliminated the biggest threat, the pig-man.

The atmosphere in the live stream became relaxed, with countless flirtatious comments flying across the screen, nearly drowning out the entire chat panel.

Qin Fei wanted to smile or wink, but alas, the balloon face couldn't express any emotions, so he raised his hand and made a heart gesture towards the void.

This caused a flurry of viewers to scream and cover their faces in the live stream lobby. The atmosphere was more like a fan event for a celebrity idol than a survival stream.

The ghost child, leading the way, soon returned to Qin Fei's side, indicating that there was no one in the ship worker's control room.

The ship worker, an old smoker, had likely sneaked out again for a smoke.

Qin Fei quickened his pace and arrived at the control room door in the blink of an eye.

A day and a night had passed, and the ship worker had once again let his guard down. The large lock he had placed outside the door last night was removed and discarded in a corner by the door.

Qin Fei effortlessly unlocked the control room.

The narrow, old wooden door was pushed open just enough for one person to pass through, and a black shadow darted inside.

Then the door closed again, everything done silently.

Once inside the control room, Qin Fei headed straight for the ventilation shaft in the ceiling.

According to the information brought by Mi Yang Xiao Xiao last night, the internal structure of the ventilation shaft wasn't complicated. From start to finish, they hadn't encountered any branches, just moving forward blindly.

Qin Fei followed suit, proceeding along the ventilation shaft.

The metal duct beneath him hummed intermittently, and Qin Fei mentally constructed a rough layout of the entire lower deck.

After nearly ten minutes of stealthily navigating through the darkness, Qin Fei successfully reached his intended destination.

He lay beside the vent.

The metal mesh that had fallen off last night had been reinstalled on the ceiling. Qin Fei pushed it aside slightly and peered out.

Everything was as Xiao Xiao Lin Ye had described.

It was a small room filled with 'animals' lined up to die.

Judging from their stiff movements, they had clearly lost most of their consciousness.

The meat grinder was still working, its rumbling deafening.

However, after several rounds of observation, Qin Fei didn't see any NPCs in the room, nor did he see the surveillance camera bristling with throwing knives.

The surveillance camera had been damaged yesterday and perhaps hadn't been repaired yet, which conveniently facilitated Qin Fei's actions.

Qin Fei jumped directly from the skylight and took a few strides to crouch beside the meat grinder.

The queue in front of the meat grinder was orderly.

Qin Fei watched as five or six animals jumped into the machine, turning into bloody, steaming piles of meat paste.

Just as the seventh animal was about to meet its end, the balloon man suddenly stood up.

He took out a pair of scissors and deftly began to remove the stitches from the NPC's neck.

—This was an NPC wearing a pig's head mask.

After 15 seconds.

A fresh, large pig's head fell into Qin Fei's hands.

"!!!" The spirits on the other side of the light screen finally realized what the broadcaster was planning to do.

Qin Fei placed the pig head over his neck, then took out Hadsay's facial skin, stretched it out with both hands, and covered it over the pig head.

In fact, it's still not quite similar.

Qin Fei is taller and much slimmer than Hadsay.

However, in certain specific environments, such a level of disguise is already sufficient for use.

Standing in front of the meat grinder, the NPC, even after having his hood removed, still failed to regain his own consciousness, and stood there in a daze.

Qin Fei was concerned that if he continued to stand there, it would delay the progress of the queue behind him, so he gave him a nudge to move along.

The balloon man sincerely clasped his hands together and, facing the meat grinder, heaved a heartfelt sigh, saying:

"Farewell, my friend."

Audience: "……"

If your voice doesn't sound as cheerful, we would perceive you as more sincere!

"Bang!!"

The ship's hull experienced another violent tremor.

Through the partition, it seemed that the sound of footsteps could be heard entering Qin Fei's ears.

Qin Fei was unaware of what lay beside this meat-grinding chamber.

In the dimly lit room, the creatures turned into bait were, for the most part, non-player characters (NPCs). According to Xiao Xiao's intelligence, it seemed that a small number of players who had been eliminated from the game were also mixed in.

The bait materials, aside from being here and in the bucket, Qin Fei has not seen them anywhere else on the boat.

Thus, Qin Fei speculated that there might be an area in the lower hold at least as large as the enclosure zone, which is used to confine these low-level feedstock.

The sound of footsteps echoed from behind the wall, drawing ever closer.

It seems that those people are heading towards the meat grinder room.

Qin Fei glanced at the ventilation duct he had closed, standing beside the meat grinder without moving.

Soon, the door was opened by someone, and a group of blue-clothed NPCs carrying buckets entered the room.

Next to the meat grinder stood a figure, dark and indistinct, making it impossible to discern the person's face.

The leading NPC became nervous. He quickly rushed to Qin Fei's side, and upon recognizing the person in front of him, he immediately relaxed.

"Mr. Hadsay!" The blue-clad NPC respectfully greeted Qin Fei.

Among the "humans" on the blue-clad NPCs' ship, they were at the very bottom—mere low-level beings that sold their labor.

Most of them had only seen Pigman Hadsay from a distance a few times, and they didn't realize at all that the one appearing before them was an impostor.

Although it was strange why Mr. Hadsay would be alone in a place like the meat grinder room, the blue-clad NPC wisely asked nothing but instead honestly reported his work to his superior.

"The school of fish attacked the cruise ship again, Mr. Hadsay," said the NPC. "Mr. Coen told us to fetch the fish feed."

Qin Fei nodded.

This Coen sounded like some NPC supervisor in the lower deck.

He asked seemingly nonchalantly, "Where is Coen?"

The blue-clad NPC in front of him became nervous. He hesitated for a moment, his eyes darting around.

In the end, he didn't dare to hide anything and stammered out the truth:

"Mr. Coen wasn't intentionally abandoning his post, Mr. Hadsay. Mr. Coen stayed in the meat grinder room this morning and at noon. It was just that, just now, there was a report from the prison side about that man..."

"That man, he escaped again, sir."

The blue-clad NPC bowed his head very low, as if presenting the back of his head to others could withstand the wrath of his superiors:

"But he hasn't run far. He must still be in the lower deck. Mr. Coen went to look for him... We didn't intend to withhold information. Mr. Coen said that if he couldn't find him within 15 minutes, he would report it to his superiors."

If Coen got into trouble because of this incident, those who worked under him wouldn't fare well either.

Especially since he happened to be caught in the crosshairs.

The blue-clad NPC was extremely nervous, his legs shaking like sieves.

Although Mr. Hadsay always smiled amiably, everyone on the ship knew that he wasn't someone with a good temper.

But to the blue-clad NPC's surprise, this nobleman, who was always above them and dealt with them with a false smile, actually let him off easily this time.

Qin Fei's gaze swept past the NPC in front of him and towards the door that hadn't been closed yet.

"Where did Coen go to look for the person?" Qin Fei asked.

The blue-clad NPC was taken aback for a moment and quickly replied, "The shipworker heard something when he went out for a smoke. There seemed to be some movement in the feed storage area."

The NPC raised his head and looked at Qin Fei fawningly. "Mr. Hadsay, are you going over there? You don't often come to the operation area of the lower deck. If you need me, I can guide you anytime."

Qin Fei nodded and gestured with his hand. "Let's go."

The NPC was overjoyed.

Serving a noble up close was the dream of all laborers.

He led Qin Fei through the dark corridors.

Soon after, a wooden fence gate appeared before the two of them.

The environment here was clearly dirtier and more disorderly than any place on the ship that Qin Fei had been to before. It was like a real pigsty, with moldy straw covering the ground, and many people lying around haphazardly.

Many people wearing animal headgear.

There were indeed many people here.

Like mushrooms sprouting from the grass after the rainy season, one by one, growing in the dark corners.

In the corners of the walls, among the piles of straw, there were people everywhere.

The NPC stretched his neck and looked around: "Mr. Cohn, he doesn't seem to be here."

He explained somewhat awkwardly: "He must have gone to look elsewhere since he couldn't find him here."

Qin Fei waved his hand: "Alright, you're done here. Go attend to other matters."

The fake Lord Hadsay chased away the blue-clad NPC but stepped into the fence in front of him himself.

Although the people on the ground all had their eyes open, they seemed to be asleep, treating Qin Fei's intrusion into their living area with indifference, not even giving him an extra glance.

Qin Fei searched through the crowd. He didn't know if the source of corruption was really here.

What was so special about this instance? Qin Fei couldn't sense the presence of the source of corruption anymore.

The youth gently spun the ring embedded with golden filigree on his hand.

There were simply too many people here, and the air smelled stuffy and unpleasant.

Some people were even unconscious in the corner, their state between life and death unclear.

Qin Fei began to ponder whether he could steal a few masks here.

Perhaps they might come in handy later.

Anyway, as long as he rolled the bodies into the straw pile, it was likely that the NPCs wouldn't discover them until the end of the instance.

Qin Fei thought this way, but as he crossed a certain patch of straw, he suddenly lost his balance.

Something tripped his foot.

The scene within his field of vision instantly spun, and Qin Fei plunged toward the straw pile beside him.

His shoulder was grabbed, and his body flipped upside down.

Qin Fei fell onto the straw pile with his back facing down, a shadow pressing down on his body above him. A lean yet powerful arm wrapped around Qin Fei's body, covering his mouth.

—To be more precise, it covered the part of the balloon head painted with a smiling line, through the human skin mask and the pig headgear.

A faint scent of roses mixed with the body heat of the person in front of him, enveloping Qin Fei, and he saw those familiar deep blue eyes again.

Fei: "…"