Chapter 74

The situation on the island was very complicated.

Zhang Zhong and Li Feiyang were passed out in different locations. Jiang Liu and the others were soaked, with a couple of strands of seaweed stuck to their clothes. Their eyes were a mixture of speechlessness and confusion, as if they were witnessing a scene that was incredibly difficult to describe with words.

Near them, a few figures were huddled together, crying. They were all stunned by the sudden appearance of the strange Mermaid, sitting on the ground with their mouths agape, their expressions a mix of wanting to cry and laugh.

Gao Yuan scratched his head. How is this situation different from what I imagined? he thought.

Shouldn’t it be Jiang Liu who was being plotted against, with him heroically stepping in at the critical moment to round up all the villains?

He suddenly felt that something was not right, especially Jiang Liu’s gaze, which made him feel uncomfortable all over. He subconsciously tried to hide in the water column next to him, unsure whether he should make a move.

Looking at Gao Yuan’s comical appearance, Jiang Liu took a deep breath, only to be choked by a pungent smell of smoke, which made her expression even uglier.

The original bonfire had been extinguished by the splashing water. The smell of something half-burnt mixed with the stench of mermaid blood was almost suffocating. Even Jiang Liu took a moment to get used to it.

Staring at Gao Yuan, who was still in the mid-air water splash, Jiang Liu spoke speechlessly, “How long are you going to keep posing?”

Gao Yuan let out a sound of surprise and quickly withdrew his attack. He landed on the shore with a few hops of his fishtail, looking at Jiang Liu with some embarrassment. “Sorry, I’m late.”

As he spoke, he took advantage of Jiang Liu’s inattention to quickly pluck the seaweed from her clothes and toss it aside. He then cleared his throat as if to cover his tracks, looking at the sky and the ground, but not daring to look at her.

Jiang Liu couldn’t help but facepalm, suddenly feeling a headache.

“This is?” Tang Ruo felt the suffocating feeling in her chest dissipate. Although she still felt a little unwell, she had subconsciously tensed up and prepared for a fight when Gao Yuan appeared, her hands tightly gripping her slingshot.

Unexpectedly, not only did this Mermaid not attack them, but he also started chatting with Jiang Liu as if they were old acquaintances, which made her a little confused.

“An NPC, a Guide of sorts,” Jiang Liu explained simply, before turning her attention back to their condition. “How is your body?”

Tang Ruo took a few deep breaths, clutched her chest, and stood up to feel it out, a hint of surprise on her face. “Much better. How about you guys?”

She kicked Tang Rui, who also stood up and jumped around, tilting his head with a curious “huh.” “I really don’t feel it anymore. Didn’t they say there was no antidote?”

Jiang Liu didn’t explain, just exchanged a look with Gao Yuan and squinted at him suspiciously for a long time. “Did you write that note?”

That crooked, crawling handwriting that looked like a worm’s trail actually came from Gao Yuan’s hand?

Gao Yuan didn’t understand her point of confusion and puffed out his chest righteously. “Yeah! Do you have any idea I waited for you in the water for three days! I was practically pickled!”

Jiang Liu sniffed hesitantly. “That must have been really tough for you.”

His fishtail couldn’t move on the shore, so he could only thrash and hop around awkwardly. The strange posture made Jiang Liu feel tired just watching. She casually pushed aside her wet hair and sighed. “So what exactly is going on here?”

Gao Yuan gave a bitter smile, his expression finally turning serious. “It’s a long story. You’d better ask them first. I’ll start a fire for you to warm up. We’ll have to stay here for another day.”

The seaside was already damp, and the wind was biting. If they didn’t dry off soon, someone might get sick.

“Alright.” Jiang Liu nodded, giving Tang Ruo a look that said he could be trusted. Seeing that the others had recovered and were busy again, she took the initiative to walk over and crouch down beside the group that Li Feiyang had been commanding.

The team on the island had originally been composed of strong young men, but now they all sat on the ground with their heads down, dejected. They didn’t even bother to look up when Jiang Liu approached, their bodies exuding a dull numbness.

She picked a younger-looking boy. “What’s the deal with those Mermaids? And what’s this about being poisoned?”

Perhaps because he had completely given up hope, the boy looked at her with lifeless eyes and finally told her everything.

Li Feiyang’s story wasn’t entirely false, but he had twisted the truth at several key points and deliberately concealed many things.

They had entered the instance five days ago and were attacked by Mermaids that very night.

Aside from Zhang and Li, everyone present was a New Player who had only cleared one or two instances. They had a hazy understanding of the System and were simply no match for such monsters on the sea.

They lost one person in the first encounter before finally succeeding in killing a single Mermaid. By then, they were exhausted and all wanted to find a way to leave this place as soon as possible.

But who would have thought that after a good night’s sleep, Li Feiyang would wake up a changed person? He insisted that hunting Mermaids would earn them points and even pulled up the Points Panel to show them. That one fish from the previous night had earned them a full fifteen points.

One had to know that an average player clearing an instance with a C-grade would only get about fifteen points.

Hearing this news, everyone was excited, thinking they had discovered a Hidden Quest. They began to lie in wait for mermaid attacks and even made detailed plans.

However, after waiting for a whole day, not a single Mermaid came to attack.

The strange change occurred on the evening of the second day.

After a day of fruitless waiting, everyone had become a bit lax. Most of them had fallen asleep around the fire, leaving only Li Feiyang and one other person discussing something.

“That night, Uncle Zhang and he had a big fight. I was half-asleep and didn’t hear clearly, but the commotion died down quickly,” the boy added, as if remembering something.

It was later that night that, by some unknown method, Li Feiyang managed to cause a large-scale mermaid attack on the island. They scrambled to their feet to fight, but Li Feiyang ordered them to follow his method of slitting the Mermaids’ throats and restraining them.

Hearing this, Jiang Liu couldn’t help but look to the side. Without the firelight, it was pitch black over there, and nothing could be seen.

She thought for a moment. “Where did those cages come from?”

The boy shook his head. “I don’t know. They were on the island when we arrived. There was a lot of dried blood inside. Uncle Zhang suspected they were specifically for imprisoning Mermaids.”

His recollection was interrupted by Jiang Liu’s question. He finally let out a long sigh, his tone heavy. “After that, we just kept hunting and imprisoning them. Brother Li never told us why. It wasn’t until the day before you arrived that we found ourselves feeling weak all over and coughing up black blood. That’s when we knew we were poisoned.”

As he spoke, he waved the ring on his finger, and a light blue panel suddenly appeared in front of him. A line of text was clearly written on it: “Debuff: Cursed Human.“

Then, the glowing blue panel seemed to freeze and went dark for a moment before refreshing with another line of text: “Buff: None.“

The boy was stunned. He looked at the panel again and again, then pointed at it, stammering in astonishment, “How is it gone?”

He took a deep breath, jumped up from the ground in disbelief, and moved his arms and legs. He felt that the heavy weight that had been pressing down on him was gone, and he stood there, stunned and incredulous.

Jiang Liu blinked, gripped the Scale, and approached the remaining five people one by one, commanding, “Open your panels.”

The remaining few were stunned for a moment. Seeing the boy’s joyful expression, they looked at each other and scrambled to open their panels.

Sure enough, as soon as Jiang Liu got close, all their debuffs were cleared.

“What on earth is going on?” the boy asked, staring blankly at Jiang Liu. He had to slap his own face hard to realize it wasn’t a dream.

One moment he was prepared to die on the island, and the next, joy fell from the heavens, leaving his mind unable to process it. He just stared at Jiang Liu in admiration, repeating “what’s going on” over and over.

Jiang Liu placed a hand on his shoulder to soothe him and said, word by word, “You see, I can save you, and I can get you out of here. So please, finish telling me what happened.”

Her voice was very light, but it inexplicably carried a power that calmed the heart. All anxiety and unease vanished, leaving only composure and obedience.

The boy took a deep breath and fell back into his memories.

His words were a bit jumbled, as he clearly wasn’t good at expressing himself, but Jiang Liu quickly found the key point in his recollections—

Factions.

Everyone had received the same initial mission: protect Xiao Ya and help her cross the sea successfully.

But beyond that, she herself had encountered the Mermaid Lin Sa and received a Side Quest: to help Lin Sa deliver the message in the Scale to her mother.

She couldn’t help but think of the word “choice” that the System had mentioned when she entered the instance.

Depending on the player’s choice of Side Quest—that is, their Faction.

Could it be that Li Feiyang, like her, had also received some kind of Side Quest on the first night—to hunt Mermaids?

Zhang Zhong had discovered that something was wrong with Li Feiyang, and a disagreement had arisen between them, which was why Li Feiyang had targeted him.

But there was another point worth noting.

Jiang Liu’s eyelashes fluttered slightly, and a question quickly came to her lips. “Wasn’t Li Feiyang poisoned?”

The boy bit his lip and fell silent, a hint of resentment in his eyes, clearly still holding a grudge against Li Feiyang for abandoning them.

“He said he had some kind of prop that could resist any negative effects in the instance. That’s why we were willing to work with him, just for a chance to get out of this godforsaken place.”

The more Mermaids they captured, the more severe their negative reactions became. They would even dream of being bitten in half by Mermaids at night, and some even started sleepwalking and attacking people.

At this point, the boy’s voice gradually lowered, his tone already tinged with a sob. “I really didn’t want to kill so many Mermaids. They don’t usually attack me. I don’t want to go to sleep one day and never wake up, only to be killed by my companions and hacked to pieces as a monster. I’m sorry.”

He covered his face and began to cry, his body trembling as he finally let out his inner fear.

The other five seemed to be moved by this and also shed tears.

A total of twenty-five of them had arrived, and in just five days, only nine survived.

If Jiang Liu and her group had arrived two days later, they might have found an empty island.

The sound of crying immediately cast a heavy mood over the atmosphere. Tang Ruo walked over from the side and patted her on the shoulder. “The backpack is waterproof, the things inside aren’t wet. You should go change.”

Jiang Liu grunted in agreement and silently turned to leave.

She knew the cruelty of the System, but hearing about this survival rate firsthand still shocked her.

Staring at the boundless sea, a trace of doubt finally spread in Jiang Liu’s heart.

Why on earth did she resolutely jump into this absurd game in the first place?