Rong Yi didn’t know if the human form she mimicked could truly express emotions, but when she looked at AI Yuesheng’s face, it displayed a somewhat constipated expression that could be described as “I can’t explain it to you.”
Rong Yi: “Are you angry?”
AI Yuesheng quickly shook his head, indicating he needed to gather his thoughts.
“How can I put this to you…” He interlocked his fingers under his chin. “You seem to have misunderstood my relationship with the game.”
“The game is not my home, it’s just my – workplace.”
“How many people truly have feelings for their workplace?”
Rong Yi: …
Although he was an NPC, he seemed quite knowledgeable about human affairs.
“If you’re wondering why I’m in the game, it’s simply to make a living.” He appeared like a weathered office worker, contemplating, “Being a boss for a day, just swimming with the tide.”
No wonder, a randomly spawned boss, whose appearance probability should be very low, could accompany her throughout the dungeon. This was a very calculated move of self-interest.
“So if you’re trying to ruin my workplace, Rong Rong-” AI Yuesheng took out a box of white ointment from his pocket, probably some kind of ointment bought from the mall, and opened it, emitting a cool oily fragrance.
“I can help you. And I can switch jobs.”
His slender pale fingers scooped up a small amount of sticky ointment, gently applying it to Rong Yi’s wound caused by the mermaid’s digestive net.
The mucus on the wound had dried up, the ointment was now directly affecting the flesh, giving a chilling and itching sensation.
Rong Yi smiled, taking the ointment from him, casually applying it to her wound.
“Where do you intend to switch jobs to, and is there another ‘game’ recruiting bosses?”
Ai Yuesheng: “…then you… don’t look…”
“I won’t look, I won’t look!”
Rong Yi suddenly felt like she was in love with some kind of monster, and now the monster was about to reveal its true form.
She turned her back, hearing a sound like jelly bursting out of its packaging behind her. The sound grew louder, accompanied by Ai Yuesheng’s painful moans.
“Little Ai?” she was extremely worried, unable to resist turning around—
On the beach, a gigantic pink octopus so large that almost the entire island couldn’t contain it, was wearily sprawled out, extending its final tentacle from its body and sinking it into the sea. With teary eyes, it looked at her from its rounded, massive blue eyeballs.
“You said you wouldn’t look—” the octopus, not knowing where to speak from, uttered a hoarse, low voice similar to Ai Yuesheng’s.
Rong Yi detected the sorrow in its voice, took a deep breath.
This was her Little Ai, her boyfriend, her Ai Yuesheng.
There was no need to be afraid.
She approached, gently resting on the octopus’s soft and slick skin, “He’s my boyfriend, what’s wrong with looking?”
The touched octopus’s skin tightened slightly, a blush appearing on its pink head.
“Oh… then I… I’ll take you back…”
With that said, a massive tentacle rose from the sea, wrapping her gently and lifting her into the air.
The large octopus slid into the water, lifting Rong Yi comfortably close to the sea surface, swiftly swimming into the deep sea.
Whether it was her illusion or not, Rong Yi felt the tentacle carrying her becoming narrower and smaller. The octopus’s head, barely visible in the deep waters, gradually became clearer.
As the tentacle shrank to the size of a lifeboat, Rong Yi saw the Dawn Goddess. The huge cruise ship stood like a dark cloud in the middle of the sea, devoid of any light, against the deep blue sky backdrop.
When Ai Yuesheng brought her to the engine room window where Luo Huayue and the others were hiding, Rong Yi could barely sit on his round head. With his arm-length tentacles, he scooped up a handful of seawater and accurately splashed it on the window!
“Snap!”
Inside the engine room, the old man opened his eyes alertly, pushed open the window, looked around, then glanced down to find Rong Yi clinging to the outer wall of the cruise ship. On her head was the now shrunken Ai Yuesheng, barely the size of a hat:
The old man: “Oh, so soon, has the baby been born?”
Rong Yi: “…”
Raymond had just awakened from the fatal blow by Ice and had to get to work.
“I found them,” he said, using vines to pull Rong Yi and the small octopus up through the window, “In this team, I’m the beautiful one, but I’m just a laborer.”
To make room for them, Luo Huayue squeezed into narrow, low pipe passages. Only her petite figure could fit comfortably there.
Zhang Haiyang curiously examined the shrunken Ai Yuesheng on Rong Yi’s head: “What’s this? A California sea hare?”
Once Ai Yuesheng shrank to about 20 centimeters, he no longer changed. At this point, he sat quietly on Rong Yi’s head, resembling a doll.
Zhang Haiyang playfully poked it, wondering if it was alive.
Rong Yi quickly opened his hand, “What are you doing? Haven’t you seen this before? He’s my boyfriend.”
Zhang Haiyang: “…”
Ai Yuesheng, with a voice that didn’t match his appearance, politely extended a pink tentacle to him, “Hello, I’m Rong Yi’s boyfriend. I didn’t have the chance to greet you earlier, I apologize.”
After a fierce internal struggle, Zhang Haiyang shook the tentacle he held, squeezed out a few words awkwardly, “Octopuses are very intelligent cephalopods… with three hearts and two memory systems… your boyfriend, well, he’s excellent. Best wishes to you both.”
Rong Yi：You don’t have to boast if you don’t want to, there’s no need to exaggerate.
The cruise map on the cabin wall added new details, supplemented by Luo Huayue based on the details they explored in the cabin tonight.
The blank spaces were getting smaller, and the location of the cockpit became clearer.
Luo Huayue yawned, “Rong Yi is back, should we explore a bit more before the sun rises?”
Thinking of those mermaids, Ice shuddered and tucked himself into a pile of rags next to the old man, “If those things come back, and our vitality bars are not full, can we escape again?”
Raymond was groggy, as if his brain was still not fully awake from Ice’s influence, muttering, “I don’t understand, today was so happy, how could happiness be false?”
The old man, struggling to keep his eyes open, lightly tapped his head with a fishing rod, “Silly child, wake up, why are you still in a dream?”
While Rong Yi intended to gather more information under the cover of night, seeing everyone exhausted, she knew that what they needed most now was rest.
However, seeing Ice transformed into a state of complete powerlessness made her sense of danger skyrocket.
The longer they procrastinated, the more danger they would be in. They needed to act fast!
She nudged the little octopus on her head, “Ai, can you get me another can of that bean juice-flavored functional drink you bought me before?”
The little octopus brought up the NPC panel and deftly clicked, “Damn game, they froze my account.”
Extending its two tentacles, “I’m a broke loser now.”
A deep, enchanting voice began to coo, and Rong Yi gently coughed, pulling him into her arms and laying him in her corner.
Unable to do anything but rest for now, they needed to recover their strength before making plans for tomorrow.
The softness in her arms helped Rong Yi finally dismiss the dream of her boyfriend turning into an octopus.
When she raised her head, she realized that besides her, the others had already woken up, sitting in a row watching her interact with the little octopus.
Luo Huayue: “Sister Rong and her husband have a great relationship.”
Zhang Haiyang: “I don’t understand, but I am greatly impressed.”
Rong Yi blushed, urging them to go out fishing to fill their stomachs.
Ai Muo, whose strength was constrained by the punishment of the game rules, could no longer help them hook fish one by one, so the probability of black fish getting hooked returned to the familiar “extremely low” for the elderly, thanks to modern fishing gear, they managed to catch enough black fish before noon to satisfy everyone.
The deck was still lively with a party atmosphere, and the cabin was surely filled with various captivating leisure activities.
Entering with open eyes would inevitably be bewildering, leading to losing rationality.
“I can memorize the existing map.” Luo Huayue took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and said, “Walk to the depths of the cabin with closed eyes, then grope your way to the cockpit.”
Ice sighed, “Too difficult. Even if you can find the cockpit blindfolded, can you find the nautical chart with closed eyes, or change the course of the cruise ship with closed eyes?”
“How about we wait until night? Sister, didn’t you say your boyfriend killed many merfolk? Would it be safer at night?”
Rong Yi shrugged, “Indeed, he killed a lot, but I can’t be sure those were all the merfolk. Besides, isn’t there a malevolent ghost captain you forgot about?”
Zhang Haiyang leaned on the ship’s rail, trying to control his seasickness, “Being confused doesn’t happen in an instant; I feel like we are slowly being manipulated into losing our rationality. Huayue, maybe you should keep your eyes open when necessary. Let Professor Lei tie a vine around you, and if anything goes wrong, we can pull you out.”
Raymond, lost in thought, nodded when cued by someone.
The old man chuckled dryly, “I’ve tried the method you mentioned, indeed, pulling yourself out with a rope at the last moment works. I explored most of the cruise ship’s structure using this method.”
“However, I later found out that each time I entered, each time I saw it, over time, even if I entered with closed eyes, once I arrived there, the scenes I’ve seen would still emerge in my mind, and I would still fall into a state of hallucination and dementia.”
“I couldn’t go further in, so I had to give up that exploration method.”
Luo Huayue pondered for a moment, “We can rotate. Person A goes in, explores a segment, then comes out; Person B memorizes the updated map, then goes in, allowing for deeper exploration… and so on.”
“Excluding the grandfather who can’t go deeper, we have four people, we should be able to explore the cockpit, right?”
She looked expectantly at Rong Yi.
Rong Yi, thoughtful, slowly shook her head, “It’s still risky. The stakes are too high.”
She glanced at the others, “In this instance, rationality is more important than anything else. As long as we keep our sanity, even if we slowly dismantle the cabin from the outside, we can still find the cockpit’s location.”
Zhang Haiyang laughed, “Sister Rong, you don’t really intend to do that, do you?”
“It’s a last resort; it’s noisy and requires high tool proficiency.” Rong Yi took the little octopus off her head, gazing into his deep blue eyes.
“You’re not a player, right? The NPCs here won’t just bewitch you; they might even fear you.”
The octopus scratched his head with a tentacle, “My power is locked by the game rules, I’m not sure if they fear me. but the power in this instance is similar to mine, indeed, they can’t harm me.”
Rong Yi nodded in satisfaction, “In the search for the cockpit, all you need to do is not look with your eyes. I have a more cost-effective method.”
She glanced at the grand entrance of the cabin, closed her eyes, and placed the octopus on top of her head:
“Student Little Ai, start the navigation.”
“Turn left, mind the doorstep, take a bigger step…yes.”
“There’s an unlocked door on the right, push through.”
“Climbing the stairs, five, four, three, two, one, turning the handrail, continuing up, six, five, four, three, two, one.”
…
Ai’s navigation service has become skilled in business and rhythm, from the text version on WeChat, to the silent live version in the copy, to the current live audio version.
Rong Yi closed her eyes, but it was as if she could see half, not slow at all, gradually walking to the deepest part of the known map.
“Where should we go next?” The little octopus asked her.
Listening to the bustling sounds around her, this was the lobby where they arrived last night. It seemed to be a banquet hall during the day, very lively.
“The cockpit should be at the highest and front of the cabin.” Rong Yi said. “But when we were on the deck, we didn’t see large rows of glass windows in the upper part of the cabin.”
“It’s possible they used one-way glass,” the little octopus said. “If this copy intends to hide the location of the cockpit, they wouldn’t make it visible at a glance.”
“I think logically, the cockpit of a ship should be in a place with a good view.” Rong Yi pointed up. “We haven’t explored the top floor yet. Little Ai, let’s go up.”
“Okay.”
The little octopus guided her through the colorful world of lights and greenery, through the bustling and glamorous scene, step by step upwards.
It became increasingly quiet around them, only Rong Yi’s footsteps and the soft navigation of the little octopus.
“It’s not as elegant here as downstairs,” the little octopus with azure eyes remained clear-headed and rational.
“Go straight ahead.”
“Have you reached a door? Turn the handle.”
*Creak.*
The door opened.
“It’s plain here but spacious. It seems to be the cockpit,” the little octopus said. “Just to be safe, keep your eyes closed.”
“Turn right, keep going, reach the glass cabinet, open it…”
“Is this where nautical charts are kept?” Rong Yi asked.
“Not nautical charts. I just checked the navigation system here, it’s quite advanced, the charts should be electronic files. But the system needs a password.”
“The cabinet contains a navigation log, maybe it has the system password recorded.” The little octopus replied. “There are many logs, start with the first one from the left.”
Following his guidance, Rong Yi found the leftmost book, pulled it out, and flipped through the pages for the little octopus to see.
“I read fast, you can flip even faster,” the gentle voice of the little octopus said. “Quantum wave speed reading.”
Rong Yi: …
She flipped through the diary quickly, finishing one book soon.
Guided by the “quantum wave speed reading” of the little octopus, they rapidly skimmed through most of the logs in the cabinet.
“Wait!” The little octopus suddenly called out to her. “Turn two pages forward.”
Rong Yi turned two pages ahead and heard the low, hoarse voice of the little octopus reading:
“The passengers are about to find a way back. But I don’t want to return. I’m a terrible captain.”
“I’m also a terrible lover. I can’t do anything, just let my lover roam in this sea of death.”
As his words fell silent, Rong Yi heard a man’s voice behind her, restrained in angry low growling:
“What are you doing?!”
Author’s note: California face octopus: also known as the pancake octopus, the cute octopus (yes, that’s the name), is mainly distributed in the Bering Sea, North Atlantic, and offshore Pacific Ocean, a very rare species, petite and round, only about 18 cm (so Rong Yi can also say: My boyfriend is 18 cm (not). Interested little angels can search for related reports and documentaries. This little creature is really super cute, it covers its eyes with its tentacles when frightened (facepalm).
