Chapter 30 Aquaman 11

"Brat, you’re asking for it!"

Hearing Xia Qi’s cold provocation, the Gold Chain Man immediately flew into a rage. With his left hand, he swung a rainbow arc, and with his right, a green dragon, delivering a powerful punch towards Xia Qi.

Before his fist could land on Xia Qi, suddenly, the girl beside Xia Qi extended her hand and firmly grabbed the Gold Chain Man’s wrist.

The girl gripped the Gold Chain Man’s wrist tightly, her gaze icy cold.

"Who the hell are you?" The Gold Chain Man didn’t expect that before Xia Qi could even act, the woman beside him would make a move. He roared at the girl, "Let go, or don’t blame me for hitting a woman."

The Gold Chain Man glanced at the girl with disdain, intending to tell her not to be so tough, but as he tried to pull his hand back, he found it wouldn’t budge.

The girl’s grip was like an iron clamp, firmly holding his hand in place.

"Let go!" The Gold Chain Man drew a sharp breath and shouted.

At this, the girl’s eyes turned even colder. She clenched her jaw, squinted at the Gold Chain Man, her gaze filled with a sinister glint.

For some reason, the Gold Chain Man felt uneasy under her gaze, as if he were being stared down by a predator.

"Let him go first." Xia Qi patted the girl’s shoulder and said calmly, "I’ll settle things with him; there’s nothing to worry about."

Seeing Xia Qi’s insistence, the girl reluctantly released her grip, looking at him anxiously, fearing he might get hurt by the Gold Chain Man.

After the girl let go, Xia Qi cracked his knuckles and said to the Gold Chain Man, "Beating you alone is enough; I don’t need her help."

"Brat!" Enraged by the insult, the Gold Chain Man’s face flushed red, and he charged at Xia Qi, yelling wildly.

Xia Qi gave a cold smile and sidestepped, dodging the attack. When the Gold Chain Man threw his punch, Xia Qi grabbed his arm, using the momentum to pull him forward. Then, he raised his knee and rammed it into the man’s stomach.

"Cough!!!" The Gold Chain Man was forced to spit out something, staggering backward several steps and falling to the ground.

"How does it feel?" Xia Qi took two steps forward, standing over the Gold Chain Man, looking down at him.

Recognizing the familiar technique and pain, the Gold Chain Man instantly identified Xia Qi. His face filled with disbelief, he exclaimed, "You... you’re Xia Qi!"

"You finally recognize me?" Xia Qi smiled faintly, "Wang Ke, your face blindness is really severe."

"Cough, cough, cough..." Realizing he had encountered an old acquaintance, Wang Ke’s face changed dramatically. He was both shocked and furious, trembling all over.

Even drinking cold water would choke him, and now he had run into Xia Qi, the successor of Foshan’s Invisible Foot Technique, in a game.

Xia Qi slowly squatted down, looking at Wang Ke, who was flushed from nervousness, and said, "What, haven’t you had enough of jail? You came here to cause trouble again? Since you’ve run into me today, why don’t you repay what you owe me once more?"

Three years ago, after leaving the hospital penniless, Xia Qi worked part-time and rented a room to survive. Wang Ke was one of the landlords he encountered.

Wang Ke was a greedy person with a habit of stealing. Xia Qi’s belongings kept disappearing, and only after installing a camera did he discover it was the landlord.

When Xia Qi asked for his deposit back upon moving out, Wang Ke fled. Xia Qi spent considerable effort tracking him down and eventually sent him to jail.

"Sigh, Brother Xia, you’re a big man, don’t hold grudges. You already made me spend three years in jail; I’ve paid my debt," Wang Ke said fearfully, swallowing hard.

More than two years ago, Xia Qi had kicked him in the stomach just like today, and it took him months to recover. He never expected Xia Qi to kick him in the same spot again.

Xia Qi’s Foshan Invisible Foot Technique had become Wang Ke’s lifelong psychological trauma.

Seeing Xia Qi still silent, Wang Ke feared another beating and began pleading, "Besides, you’re not short of money, right? Your boyfriend is quite wealthy..."

At this, Xia Qi was taken aback.

"He’s wealthy?!"

Back then, Cha Gong often visited him under the guise of a savior, leading Wang Ke to mistakenly believe Cha Gong was his boyfriend.

Something clicked in Xia Qi’s mind. He pressed down on Wang Ke’s shoulder, his voice turning cold, "How do you know he’s rich?"

"I, I... he’s wealthy, didn’t you know?" Wang Ke trembled, "You young techies are always so rich but prefer wearing Uniqlo and H&M. Once, when I went to see a property, I saw him getting out of a long limousine. My real estate agent told me his name was Cha Gong. That’s how I knew he was your boyfriend, and he’s incredibly wealthy, buying the best lakeside villa..."

Xia Qi felt as if he had been plunged into an ice bath, his blood freezing. He gritted his teeth, "What else did you see in the limousine?"

"N-nothing else. The windows were too dark to see anything," Wang Ke answered honestly, remembering only that Cha Gong had bought a villa.

Xia Qi frowned. How could Cha Gong have been so wealthy back then? Had he been pretending to be poor all along?

Impossible. Cha Gong came from a rural background, with parents who were ordinary farmers. Xia Qi had seen them from a distance.

Every month, Cha Gong sent money to his parents. Where did his wealth come from? Could it be that he had known the young master three years ago?

Xia Qi felt a chill spreading from his feet up his spine, suspecting he was caught in a massive conspiracy.

Why had Cha Gong approached him? No wonder he had taken his USB drive and bullets after rescuing him from the Inner Mongolian desert...

What was he hiding?

"Can I go now?" Seeing Xia Qi’s changing expressions, Wang Ke felt guilty, fearing another kick.

Xia Qi stood up, pointing to the door, and said coldly, "Get lost."

Wang Ke, relieved, dared not mention the room swap again and hurried away.

Once everything was quiet, Xia Qi faced the wall and sighed deeply.

Suddenly, his voice hoarse, he whispered, "Is the Sin Game used to punish bad people?"

Of course, no one answered his question.

Was I a bad person before?

Xia Qi murmured to himself, feeling anxious about his lost memories from three years ago.

A hand suddenly patted his shoulder. Xia Qi turned around and saw the girl nervously staring at him, her face full of concern.

Xia Qi rubbed his temples, stared at her for a while, and then said, "Go to sleep."

As soon as he lay down on the makeshift bed, he heard arguing in the hallway. It turned out that Wang Ke wanted to switch rooms with the female player from the third room, who had lost her teammate. Naturally, she refused, and they argued for a long time. In the end, the female player had to give in and let Wang Ke take her makeshift bed, so they ended up sharing a room.

Once Wang Ke settled into the third room, the people in the second room started arguing again.

With Wang Ke gone from the first room, it would be empty tonight. If the monster couldn't find anyone in the first room, what if it came to their second room and killed them?

Thus, the people in the second room began arguing with those in the third room, making the hallway as noisy as it was during the day. After an unknown amount of time, a familiar man's singing suddenly echoed from afar.

Xia Qi blinked inadvertently and was drawn into a dream by the song. Everyone else arguing also instantly fell asleep.

This time, in the dream, Xia Qi did not arrive at the sunken ship or the iron cage; instead, he found himself once again in the seaweed forest.

He pushed aside the seaweed in front of him and suddenly saw a beautiful fish tail flash behind the seaweed, much like the mermaid's tail he had seen underwater before. This time, however, the tail seemed smaller.

"Is it you?" Xia Qi parted the seaweed in front of him and walked toward the direction of the small mermaid.

The fish tail twitched lightly again, and when Xia Qi tried to touch it, the small mermaid quickly dodged away.

However, the small mermaid did not go far. In the dense seaweed forest, Xia Qi could feel it watching him.

"Are you the one calling me? Can you tell me your purpose?" Xia Qi continued, trying hard to appear kind.

Under Xia Qi's patient persuasion, the small mermaid parted the seaweed in front of it, revealing a face that Xia Qi found very familiar.

It opened its large, bright blue eyes and looked at Xia Qi pitifully, pointing at its tail and making a gesture as if asking for help. Then it rubbed its eyes, looking even more pitiful.

Xia Qi's heart melted.

Just as he was about to step closer, everything spun around him.

"Mmm."

Xia Qi opened his eyes and realized he had woken up from the dream.

However, waking up felt terrible. His head throbbed painfully, and the headache was worse than yesterday.

Still, just like yesterday, Xia Qi found himself mysteriously "lying" on the wooden bed.

But today, the girl beside him hadn't fled in guilt; instead, she was lying quietly next to him, and his hands were placed calmly on his abdomen.

Xia Qi stared at her for a while, seeing that she was still deeply asleep, so he didn't make a sound. Instead, he carefully climbed off the wooden bed, stepping over her legs.

After he got up and put on his shoes, he suddenly noticed that many translucent blue scales had fallen off his body.

He reached down to pick up the scales from the floor.

These scales felt icy cold in his hand, and their shape was far from ordinary—they were heart-shaped.

After a moment of speechlessness, Xia Qi summoned the system panel.

"Item Name: TA's Scales"

"Level: No Level"

[Other Notes: Every scale that falls is in the shape of love!] Xia Qi: "……"

Xia Qi twitched the corner of his mouth and made up his mind instantly.

Once he returned to the central space, he would definitely find someone to sell these two most useless items, "TA's Hair" and "TA's Scales"!

The girl was still deeply asleep. Xia Qi pursed his lips and quietly left the room.

Upon reaching the deck, as expected, another shrill scream echoed.

This time, it was a man who screamed.

"My teammate is dead! There's something wrong with the second room!" The man shouted frantically at the bow of the ship.

"Waaah…" Accompanying his shouts was a woman's crying.

Xia Qi arrived at the bow and found that where the head had been placed yesterday, there was now another bloody head—this time, it belonged to the female player from the second room.

In this game, there were only two female players in total.

The female player whose teammate had died early on leaned against the mast, wiping her tears and sobbing, "My teammate is dead, and you're dead too. What am I supposed to do…"

Facing death once again, Xia Qi felt very sad. However, compared to the depressed players, the female deputy and the captain were unusually cheerful.

They drank rum while singing strange tunes, all in a dialect they couldn't understand.

After the captain had sailed for some time, the system prompt sounded again.

"Ding! Course Progress: +30%, Total Progress 80%!"

Hearing this prompt, everyone was stunned.

"O-Only the dead can reach the end? How many more people have to die?" Someone burst into tears.

Xia Qi also frowned. What was going on with this ship? Did it really need to kill them all to reach the destination?

Everyone complained for a long time. Eventually, someone suggested collecting the female player's head.

Tony crossed his arms and snorted, "Lin Qing and Wang Dazhuang sure are sleeping soundly! When they die, let's not collect their bodies either!"

Everyone had gathered at the bow early, but Lin Qing and Wang Dazhuang hadn't appeared.

"Stop it, sigh, who knows who will die tomorrow?" someone replied.

After cleaning up the head once again, someone pointed at the "routine undersea delivery" on the deck and said, "Have you noticed? Today's seafood is less than yesterday's!"

"Never mind, there's enough for us to eat. Let's go down first."

After carrying the seafood down, they started cooking breakfast.

But after finishing, no one had much of an appetite. The male player whose female teammate had died today suddenly stood up and said with a choked voice, "I can't eat. I'm going back."

"Wait." Xia Qi put down his utensils, looked up, and asked, "Where is her box? Do you have it on you?"

"The box is still by her bed. I didn't touch it. What's wrong?" the male player asked in confusion.

Hearing this, Xia Qi turned to Wang Ke and asked, "Your teammate's box should be on you, right?"

"How can you say that...?" Once again caught by Xia Qi's Foshan Invisible Foot, Wang Ke awkwardly smiled, "Am I that kind of person?"

Xia Qi turned his head and coldly looked at him: "Take it out."

Seeing he couldn't avoid it, Wang Ke gritted his teeth and took his teammate's box out of his pocket, then casually placed it on the table.

Xia Qi picked up the box and felt its weight, noticing that the contents were rather light, not like a heavy object.

"If you don't mind, I plan to open this box," Xia Qi said, holding the box and looking at everyone, "The owner of this box is dead. I think everyone should have no objections, right?"

"Don't, what if something comes out..." someone muttered softly, afraid of triggering another death condition.

Xia Qi handed the box to another person and said, "Feel for yourselves whether the contents of this box are the same as those in your boxes. I suspect that the order of killings each night is not based on rooms but on the contents of the boxes."

If it were based on rooms, the game wouldn't change the target just because someone switched rooms. If simply switching rooms could avoid the death condition, everyone would hide in the last room.

And that octopus captain, who comes down every night to find his "little treasures," is likely looking for the contents of the boxes. Since the captain instructed them to open the boxes only after leaving the ship, the clue to the killing order must be inside the boxes.

After passing the box around, someone turned pale and whispered, "R-really different."