Chapter 24 Aquaman 5

Dazed and confused, Xia Qi felt himself being carried through the air.

After a while, he was gently lifted and placed on a clean surface.

As his consciousness gradually returned, Xia Qi could feel the blinding light on his eyes and faintly hear voices nearby.

"Damn, there really were monsters in the sea! Good thing I ran fast!"

"Those damn NPCs must have done this on purpose; they wanted to kill us!"

"What did that monster look like?"

As the two men walked away, one of them suddenly shouted, "How dare you? You didn't even get the quest item, yet you want to steal mine?!"

This loud shout jolted Xia Qi awake, and he abruptly opened his eyes, flipping over to sit up.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he raised his head, it collided with someone else's forehead with a thud.

"Ouch—"

Xia Qi fell back, stars dancing before his eyes. He held his aching forehead, gasping softly: "You..."

The girl had been leaning over him, not expecting Xia Qi to wake up so suddenly. After their heads made intimate contact, Xia Qi's forehead immediately swelled up.

She treated him like a piece of fragile glass, carefully helping him up, her eyes filled with concern.

"Are you okay?" Xia Qi asked her in return.

The girl shook her head, indicating she was fine.

Xia Qi frowned; this person's head was as hard as iron. Had she practiced some kind of iron-head technique?

As the pain in his forehead subsided, Xia Qi sat steadily and discovered another source of discomfort.

It was his lips.

He touched his mouth and found that his lip was chapped and swollen from being immersed in water for too long.

Even worse, his tongue was both painful and numb. When he tried to breathe in, the pain made his toes curl.

Xia Qi covered his mouth, his brow furrowed awkwardly.

The girl looked at him with concern, asking if he was hurt.

Xia Qi gritted his teeth and turned his head away.

He would treat it as if he had been bitten by a dog.

Just as he was about to get up, the girl, like presenting a treasure, stuffed a pile of things into his arms.

Xia Qi looked down and saw a bag of pearls from Pearl Reef and a bag of pearl fish, both of which he had lost in the sea.

"You actually got pearl fish?" Xia Qi exclaimed in surprise.

The girl patted her chest, indicating that catching pearl fish was easy and effortless.

Xia Qi glanced at her skeptically but accepted the quest items.

In addition, he noticed a pink seashell in his hand.

"Did you pick this up?" Xia Qi asked, puzzled.

The girl shook her head, indicating that he had been holding it all along, not that she had picked it up.

Xia Qi frowned, raising the overly girlish-looking seashell.

He had a hunch that this wasn't something good.

"Reward Item: Pink Memory Conch (Bound)."

"Rank: No Rank."

"Other Description: Summer, summer, quietly passing, leaving behind little secrets, hidden deep within, hidden deep within, can't tell you~ [1] Do you have any secret whispers to share with your loved one? They will reply with a secret about the two of you!"

Xia Qi: "..."

Sure enough, he knew he couldn't find anything normal in this game!

Apart from the True Love's Melody Magic Wand at the start, items like "Mary Queen's Wedding Dress," "Red Diamond Wedding Ring," and the "Passionate Rose Perfume" given by Margaret were all things that left him speechless, none as practical as the silver dinner knife from the old man.

Although Xia Qi despised the "Pink Memory Conch," the girl looked at him curiously, wondering if he was satisfied with the item.

"It's okay, I guess." Xia Qi frowned, wondering what use this useless item could be.

The girl pointed at the conch, urging him to try it out, then looked at him meaningfully.

"I'll give it a try." Xia Qi pursed his lips, lifting the conch to his mouth and whispering a few words.

After being battered by underwater fishing, how could he be expected to say nice things?

Xia Qi sneered inwardly.

After putting away the conch, the girl still stared at him curiously.

Xia Qi didn't explain, staring at her face for a moment before standing up.

As they were walking forward with the bags, they were unexpectedly stopped by Gold Chain Man and his teammates. Gold Chain Man whistled at Xia Qi, "You caught a lot of fish, huh? Give me a couple, will you? You've got enough for the quest, and I promise we'll go easy on you in the next game."

Xia Qi glared coldly at the Gold Chain Man. He was the one who had sent this man to prison over two years ago, and he never expected him to reappear in front of him, let alone fail to recognize him.

"What do you need so many fish for?" Xia Qi asked. They clearly had enough to complete their task; did they want more for soup?

"Hmph, just give them to me," the Gold Chain Man said without further explanation. These Pearl Fish were crucial, and it was better to have extra.

Xia Qi sneered and took a step forward, ready to teach the Gold Chain Man a lesson, when the girl suddenly stepped in front of him, looking down at the man with disdain.

"Hey, what are you trying to do? Changed your mind?" the Gold Chain Man chuckled.

The girl stared at him coldly, a murderous intent flashing in her eyes. Just as she was about to act, a scream from the bow of the ship caught everyone's attention.

"Ahhh—someone help!"

The scream was so agonizing that even the Gold Chain Man abandoned his robbery and rushed toward the bow.

When Xia Qi and the girl arrived at the bow, they found a female player sobbing uncontrollably, covering her face. If he remembered correctly, this player was a beginner.

"Wah wah wah, he's dead. I shouldn't have let him go catch Pearl Fish alone!" the female player wept softly, her expression filled with anguish.

Who died?

Xia Qi frowned and looked in the direction the female player was pointing.

There, on the bow of the ship, lay a bloody head.

The eyes had been gouged out, leaving dark, bloody holes on the face. Blood trickled down the cheeks to the mouth, which appeared to be missing its tongue and teeth, leaving only a gruesome mess. Even more horrifying, there were bloodstains on the top of the head, as if someone had roughly shaved off all the hair.

Xia Qi followed the wounds down to the throat, where he noticed another hole, seemingly made by a sharp object.

Given the horrific state of the player, everyone felt a deep sadness.

Xia Qi sighed, thinking that this male player was likely the one killed by the monster with the trident in the seaweed forest.

"Ahhh, what should I do? What will I do alone?" the female player cried desperately. Another female player came over and silently patted her shoulder in consolation.

"What's all the fuss about? It's just one person dead."

Footsteps sounded, and the female assistant appeared behind everyone, loudly scolding them.

Seeing an NPC arrive, the crowd quickly parted to make way for her.

The female assistant calmly looked at the terrifying head on the bow, a strange smile playing on her lips. "Did you see that? This is what happens when you're not careful."

Watching the assistant’s cold demeanor, everyone clenched their teeth in anger but dared not speak up.

These NPCs didn't treat them like humans; to them, they were merely cannon fodder!

"Alright, hand over your Pearl Reefs and Pearl Fish." The female assistant whistled cheerfully, preparing to collect their mission items.

Xia Qi secretly kept half a pound of Pearl Reefs and three Pearl Fish, handing over the rest.

After collecting everyone's items, the female assistant realized that two people were still missing.

"Who else hasn't returned?" She scanned the crowd, though she couldn't really distinguish the faces of these Easterners, as Westerners often found them indistinguishable.

"Lin Qing and Wang Dazhuang haven't returned," Tony said with disgust.

Wang Dazhuang was the name of the muscular man. He now hated this pair of gay men so much that he wished they would die far away and never appear before him again!

"Wait for them for another half hour. If they don't return, set sail," the female assistant said coldly, then instructed two female players, "You two, clean up the garbage on the ship."

It was clear that the female assistant wanted the two female players to dispose of the head.

Hearing that they had to handle their teammate's head, one female player was terrified and speechless, while the other nodded reluctantly, accepting the task.

After the female assistant left, the female player looked pleadingly at the girl, hoping she could help dispose of the head.

The girl agreed without hesitation.

She was willing to do this mainly because the head was too disgusting, and she didn't want to taint Xia Qi's eyes.

After casually throwing the head away and wiping her hands clean, she stood next to Xia Qi.

After half an hour, the young master and the muscular man still hadn't returned, and the captain ordered the female assistant to set sail.

Tony danced with joy, shouting, "Those gay men must have been eaten by monsters! Not even a head left, tsk tsk tsk."

By then, the sea around them had calmed, and the sky was a deep blue, as if painted with overly saturated blue paint.

The sailboat gradually moved away from the Black Reefs. Xia Qi stood at the edge of the ship, gazing out at the sea. After a while, he noticed a layer of grayish-white fog rising from the surface.

Something was wrong.

This fog greatly reduced visibility, making it impossible for Xia Qi to determine their location. He borrowed a compass from an NPC sailor and found that the needle spun faster than a handheld electric fan, rendering it useless for navigation and turning it into a summer travel accessory instead.

After leaving the ship's edge, Xia Qi decided to talk to the captain at the helm.

The captain was fiddling with the rudder, humming a strange tune, oblivious to the cigar ash falling onto his neck.

Xia Qi stood behind the captain and feigned humility, asking, "Captain, which direction are we heading?"

"Ah, young man, we're heading south!" the captain said proudly, adding confidently, "You can't tell directions? Doesn't look like you're cut out for being a sailor."

Who wants to be a headless sailor, Xia Qi thought, his lips twitching. He pointed to the layers of gray fog outside and said, "How can we tell which direction is south?"

Upon hearing this, the captain turned and gave him a mysterious smile. "The thickest fog is where the south lies!"

Xia Qi felt chills run down his spine from the captain's gaze and stepped back repeatedly.

Xia Qi refused to believe it and went to chat with the female deputy again. When he received the same answer, he couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

It was 4 PM, and there were only a few hours left until nightfall. The sun in front of them was setting.

The direction where the sun was setting was clearly the west, yet the captain insisted they were heading south.

"Ding! Course progress: +10%, total progress 10%!"

What?!

Xia Qi was instantly shocked. How could the progress increase by just sailing aimlessly?!

Xia Qi no longer dared to believe what was happening.

After another half an hour, the NPC sailors notified all players to enter the cabin for dinner.

Inside the cabin, on a long dining table, several black loaves of bread were laid out. These were bread made with a small amount of white flour mixed with bran and wood chips, resembling giant iron blocks, with a rather gruesome appearance.

Everyone stared at these disgusting black loaves, unsure how to start eating. It was the Gold Chain Man who stepped forward, taking out a small knife to cut the bread.

He struggled to cut the bread for a while but couldn't manage to slice through it. Everyone chattered, saying it was like an iron block and impossible to eat.

Seeing an axe in the corner, Xia Qi said, "Try using the axe."

Sure enough, the Gold Chain Man managed to chop the black loaf into several pieces with the axe.

However, when a female player picked up one of the pieces, she suddenly screamed.

"Ahhh! There are maggots!" She threw the black loaf back onto the table and vomited right there.

From the broken loaf, several white worms crawled out, moving slowly and leaving a wet trail on the table.

"Ugh—!!"

"This must be the captain and the female deputy's malice!!"

All the players gagged, even Xia Qi felt a wave of nausea.

Hearing their commotion, an NPC sailor passing by said, "Oh, you guys are really silly. Before eating the bread, you should place a fish on top to lure out the maggots and weevils."

Upon hearing this, everyone fell silent. Even if they lured out the maggots and weevils, wouldn't the bread still be crawling with disgusting insects?

The NPC sailor shrugged. "Our black bread has been stored for years. If you're not used to it, you'll just have to go hungry."

Everyone's faces turned ashen. Even if they starved to death, they would never eat this "worm-infested" black bread!

While the sailors ate, the ship remained anchored at sea.

The Chinese people have always valued food above all else. Even in a survival game, they couldn't tolerate going hungry or eating maggots.

Someone suggested going fishing, so they borrowed a fishing boat from the female deputy and jumped into the water to catch fish.

Seeing that someone had borrowed the fishing boat, Xia Qi also climbed aboard.

He held a harpoon and, mimicking others, threw some bait into the water and waited quietly.

Initially, he thought spearing fish would be difficult, but Xia Qi managed to spear two fish effortlessly.

These fish seemed to be deliberately swimming into his harpoon.

Others weren't as lucky; despite multiple attempts, they only managed to catch one fish each.

Xia Qi returned with two fish, both of which were salmon that had collided with him underwater earlier.

These two fish were hard-won; underwater, the salmon had almost knocked him into the depths following some unknown command.

Xia Qi decided to eat salmon tonight.

"Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh..."

In the kitchen, Xia Qi was scraping the scales off the fish with a cleaver when the girl entered, looking somewhat upset.

She pointed at the fish in his hand, her eyes full of questions.

Xia Qi said, "Didn't catch much. Let's make do with this for today. I didn't expect this scenario to lack food."

The girl's eyes flickered, then she slowly nodded.

After gutting the fish, Xia Qi casually prepared a fish platter and sat down at the table with the girl.

She stared at his gaunt face, her eyes filled with concern.

"What are you looking at? Eat." Xia Qi pushed the plate towards her.

Just as Xia Qi took a couple of bites, the nearby Gold Chain Man suddenly gagged and collapsed to the ground.

Xia Qi turned in confusion to look at the suddenly convulsing Gold Chain Man.

"Ah, ugh!!!"

The Gold Chain Man still had half a fish tail in his mouth. He spat it out, and as it hit the ground, it suddenly turned into a rotting fish tail.

"Ah, what is this—ugh!"

Seeing the disgusting fish tail, which looked like it came from a sewage drain, the Gold Chain Man gagged again. This time, something slippery slid down his throat, and a long, stinky piece of soft flesh slowly emerged from his mouth.

"Plop."

A rotten squid tentacle fell to the ground, still wriggling in a pool of yellow mucus.

Author's note: Someone: Fishies are so cute, how can you eat fishies!

[1] Reference to the song "Pink Memories," singer: Han Baoyi. Feel free to check out the MV if you're interested, consider it a little Easter egg^O^.