Gu Jiu finally couldn’t hold back and delivered a heavy punch straight to its face.
Don’t be fooled by her usual delicate and gentle demeanor—she didn’t seem strong. But whenever she used her “Banshee’s Armor,” her strength would skyrocket, and her punches became so powerful they could beat the ghosts in the game world into wailing despair.
The fish-faced man, suddenly punched for no reason, was dumbfounded. Clutching his swollen, aching face, he asked in frustration, “Why are you hitting me again today?”
Gu Jiu replied confidently, “Deceiving your lover deserves punishment! Don’t you even understand that basic principle? And yet you talk about love?”
The fish-faced man felt utterly wronged and wanted to retort: Aren’t you the one who refuses to admit I’m your lover?
After a moment of silence, his fish-like face contorted in anger, and his tone turned dangerous. “Give me the Love Stone!”
“You mean that heart?” Gu Jiu deliberately referred to the “Love Stone” as a heart. Seeing that he didn’t refute her, she knew she was right. Smirking, she said lightly, “I don’t have it. I fed it to the mermaids. That disgusting thing? Even they probably found it filthy.”
The fish-faced man’s expression twisted further, and his tone became chilling. “Don’t provoke me.”
Gu Jiu couldn’t help but laugh—a delicate and elegant laugh, yet her actions were anything but.
She pinned the fish-faced man down and beat him up violently, all the while asking, “So what if I provoke you? If you’ve got the guts, come into the real world right now and let’s have a fight!”
Knowing full well that the fish-faced man couldn’t be killed in the dream, she acted as recklessly as she pleased.
Sure enough, no matter how brazen she was, the fish-faced man could only passively take the beating. He didn’t even try to retaliate, let alone dodge. Whenever he attempted to flee, Gu Jiu would chase him down and continue pummeling him.
In the end, left with no choice, he threw Gu Jiu out of the dream.
—
“Darling, give me the Love Stone…”
Before the sentence was finished, the roar of a chainsaw interrupted. The fish-faced man broke into a cold sweat and ran away clutching his head.
Qi Yuheng stood there holding the chainsaw, staring at the retreating fish-faced man with a cold smirk.
A so-called “Sea God” who only hid in players’ dreams—pathetically weak! Yet, this very creature forced players to take part in absurd trials to retrieve its lost body parts.
The more he thought about it, the more disgusted he felt. Without a word, Qi Yuheng revved the chainsaw and went after the fish-faced man.
The fish-faced man hadn’t expected this player to be so violent. One after another, the players he encountered would simply attack without hesitation. Left with no choice, he threw Qi Yuheng out of the dream as well.
—
As Qi Yuheng woke up, the rumbling of thunder echoed outside. The sound of raging waves crashing against the shore was deafening, as if threatening to shatter the rocks along the coast.
“Boss Qi, you’re awake.”
Ge Guang’s voice came from outside. He was just about to ask about the dream when he noticed Qi Yuheng clutching his mouth.
From experience, Ge Guang immediately shut up. He knew Boss Qi must have been disgusted by the fish-faced creature in the dream again.
Qi Yuheng said, “Don’t speak. Hearing your voice makes me want to puke.”
Ge Guang: “….” So now Boss Qi finds even the sound of my voice nauseating?
He wanted to defend himself. I didn’t do anything! The one making you sick is the fish-faced creature in the dream—what does that have to do with me?
After a long while, Qi Yuheng finally suppressed his nausea and glanced out the window.
The scene outside was pitch-black, with nothing visible. However, based on his understanding of the game world, he had a strong feeling something terrifying was about to happen.
“Ge Guang, go lock all the doors and windows.”
Ge Guang responded with a quick acknowledgment and jumped out of bed to lock the doors and windows.
When he was securing the sliding glass door to the balcony, he suddenly noticed two mermaid dolls clinging to it. They were clawing at the glass with sharp talons, as if desperately trying to get inside.
Sensing something was off, Ge Guang turned to inform Boss Qi about the situation.
Qi Yuheng squinted thoughtfully for a moment before saying, “Let them in, and tie them up with the special rope.”
This was no ordinary rope but one specifically designed to deal with supernatural entities.
A while later, the two mermaid dolls, now tightly bound, were dragged inside by Ge Guang. The creatures bared their sharp, shark-like teeth. A bite from them would undoubtedly be a painful experience.
Qi Yuheng cast them a weightless glance and said coldly, “Behave yourselves, or I’ll toss you back outside.”
The two furious mermaid dolls quickly snapped their mouths shut.
Ge Guang clicked his tongue. As expected, non-human creatures in the game world were cowards when faced with force. Although they still hadn’t figured out the purpose of these mermaid dolls, it seemed they weren’t allied with the fish-faced monster.
—
Gu Jiu woke up from her dream and casually remarked to Lu Ji, “Ah Ji, it seems this ‘Sea God’ is pretty weak, huh?”
Lu Ji replied, “You think the fish-faced guy is the Sea God?”
“Pretty close to it.” Gu Jiu sipped from the glass of water on the table to soothe her dry throat. “But once it gathers all its body parts, it’ll grow much stronger.”
Lu Ji quickly caught onto her line of thinking. “So, you’re saying the fish eyes and the heart we collected in the past two days are parts of the ‘Sea God’?”
Gu Jiu nodded. “Something must have happened to the fish-faced creature, causing parts of its body to scatter around Love Island. To reclaim its body, it created this so-called ‘Sea God’s Trial,’ luring couples who romanticize love to the island. It calls it a trial, but in truth, it’s just using them to retrieve its lost body parts…”
To make players willingly assist it, the fish-faced creature disguised itself in dreams as the players’ lover, hiding behind the concept of “love.”
“That sashimi from the first night’s dinner,” Gu Jiu speculated, “was likely flesh from the fish-faced creature itself. Eating it makes people susceptible to the idea of ‘love’ and compels them to see the fish-faced creature as their lover in dreams.”
Lu Ji nodded in agreement. “That would explain the clues we’ve pieced together so far.”
He recalled the oceanic creatures that attacked last night. “Because it’s the Sea God, it can control undead marine creatures to do its bidding?”
Gu Jiu scoffed, “Sea God? It doesn’t deserve the title. It’s just a fish-faced monster with some special abilities.”
From the very first night they arrived in the game world and she encountered the fish-faced creature in her dream, Gu Jiu had suspected its identity. Last night, when it came to her to demand the fish eyes, her suspicions were confirmed.
She was sure she wasn’t the only one who had figured it out—Qi Yuheng likely had as well. As for the other players, she wasn’t close to them and had no idea about their progress.
Lu Ji lowered his gaze. “That fish-faced creature now likely has its eyes and heart back. Its powers will be stronger. Do you think there’ll be more attacks tonight?”
“Hard to say,” Gu Jiu replied uncertainly. Last night’s marine creature attack was likely triggered by the fish-faced creature obtaining the fish eyes. Now that it had gained the heart from another player, its strength was probably even greater.
She sighed at the thought.
“I think the mystery of this game world isn’t that hard to figure out. The real challenge is preventing the fish-faced creature from regaining its body parts,” Gu Jiu analyzed. “Take the fish eyes, for example. It had twenty players looking for them simultaneously. As long as one player handed them over, it could reclaim its eyes.”
Gu Jiu speculated that the countless eyes scattered in the sea were fragments of the fish-faced creature’s own eyes. Once it reclaimed even one of those fragments, it regained its vision-related abilities.
The same principle applies to the heart.
The heart had been discarded in the forest on the island. Even though it had dried up over time, it wouldn’t disintegrate or disappear.
Among the seventeen surviving players, four had eaten the sashimi and were now treating the fish-faced creature as their lover in the dream. These four would undoubtedly hand over any heart they found to the fish-faced creature without hesitation.
Besides the heart, what would be next on the list of body parts to find?
Just as Gu Jiu was pondering this, a sudden clap of thunder roared.
The sound rumbled through the air, shaking the entire villa as if the structure itself was responding to the thunder’s might.
Gu Jiu focused intently on the sound, her expression shifting dramatically. “Wait, this isn’t thunder—it’s the sea! The tide is rising!”
She jumped out of bed and ran to the window. Water stains had begun to seep in through the tightly shut frame. Looking carefully into the darkness outside, she could see waves crashing, and occasionally, a few droplets splattered onto the window, leaving streaks of water trailing down the glass.
This was the third floor of the villa!
Her expression turned grave. “Ah Ji, it looks like we won’t be getting any sleep tonight. We need to get to the rooftop immediately.”
Lu Ji nodded in agreement.
As they were about to leave the room, two mermaid dolls slid over toward them, followed closely by five small paper figurines.
When faced with the paper figurines, Gu Jiu greeted them with a warm smile. But toward the mermaid dolls, her demeanor turned indifferent. “You two think you’re so tough, huh? Surely you’re not afraid of a little seawater? After all, if you fall into the water, you can always climb back out.”
The mermaid dolls’ expressions flashed with anger, but recalling how this human was consistently aggravating, they quickly adopted pitiful looks and clung desperately to her shoes.
Gu Jiu snorted, “Useless.”
The mermaid dolls: “….” Fine, we’ll endure this humiliation.
Gu Jiu picked up the two mermaid dolls and stuffed them into the pockets of her trench coat, letting the five small paper figurines hop into her pocket as well. Together, she and Lu Ji stepped out into the hallway.
First, they knocked on the door of Ruan Yuan and Lu Haidi’s room.
The door opened quickly, and Ruan Yuan looked at them curiously. “Miss Gu, Ah Ji, what’s going on?”
Gu Jiu wasted no time. “The seawater will soon flood the villa. We need to get to the rooftop immediately.”
“No way, really?”
Gu Jiu didn’t stop to explain further. “You two, head to the second floor and alert the other players. Tell them to go to the rooftop. Hurry!”
Ruan Yuan and Lu Haidi exchanged a quick glance and instinctively looked toward the garden balcony at the far end of the third floor.
Outside, the darkness was impenetrable. It was impossible to see anything clearly, but the sound of crashing waves grew louder with each passing moment, blending with the distant rumble of thunder to create an overwhelming cacophony.
Because the thunder had been constant, they had assumed there would be a storm tonight. They hadn’t noticed anything unusual about the waves.
But if they ignored it now, and the waves rose high enough to flood the villa…
Without wasting another second, the two of them rushed down to the second floor to alert the other players.
Gu Jiu then knocked on Qi Yuheng’s door to share her hypothesis.
Ge Guang was stunned. He ran to the balcony and stared into the dark expanse of the sea. It wasn’t until a few cold droplets of seawater splashed onto his face that he realized Gu Jiu’s prediction was correct.
The darkness outside the villa was impenetrable, making it impossible to assess the rising seawater with the naked eye. Furthermore, the players would never have guessed that the so-called Sea God would be cruel enough to flood the villa. If the seawater did rise and engulf the building, the players would be forced to escape through the water—a chilling prospect.
Qi Yuheng fixed his gaze on Gu Jiu and suddenly asked, “You’ve figured out the Sea God’s true nature too, haven’t you?”
Gu Jiu nodded with a faint smile on her lips. “The hints are pretty obvious. It wasn’t hard to deduce. What’s unclear is how it ended up like this. For now, we need to focus on stopping it from reclaiming all of its body parts.”
“Stopping it isn’t enough,” Qi Yuheng added. “We need to force it into the real world, to appear in front of us. The secret of Love Island lies with it. Unless we unravel its mystery, we won’t uncover the truth of this place.”
Gu Jiu nodded in agreement. “You’re right. But for now, let’s focus on getting through tonight.”
They continued to the remaining two rooms on the third floor and knocked.
Brother Nian opened the door, his expression surprised. After listening to Gu Jiu’s explanation, his face turned serious. “Understood. We’ll head to the rooftop immediately.”
He turned back into the room and, moments later, emerged dragging someone behind him—a man tied up tightly with ropes.
When they recognized the bound figure as Skinny Monkey, Gu Jiu and Qi Yuheng fell silent.
Brother Nian explained patiently, “He’s in a dangerous state right now. This is the only way I can keep him under control.”
The two being teammates suggested a strong bond of trust between them. Even though Skinny Monkey had eaten the sashimi and succumbed to its effects, Brother Nian clearly hadn’t given up on him. If there was even a slight chance, Brother Nian wanted to bring Skinny Monkey out of the game world alive. Perhaps back in Boundless City, Skinny Monkey’s mind could be restored.
Gu Jiu and Qi Yuheng exchanged a glance, their respect for Brother Nian growing.