The captain glared at the uninvited guest in the cockpit, his gentle brown eyes beginning to show hints of a sinister blue transformation.
Rong Yi tucked the logbook at his waist, took a few steps back, and faced the direction of the captain’s voice. “Can I open my eyes?”
“You can. He has no bewildering effect,” answered the small octopus above him.
Rong Yi opened his eyes and saw the furious captain charging at him. He retreated, maneuvering in the spacious cockpit to evade him.
“I just got lost,” Rong Yi tried to communicate. “You’re a crew member; there’s no reason to harm a lost passenger, right?”
“This is not a place for passengers,” the captain said, half of his face already transformed, with ghostly blue flames burning within his white skull. As he spoke, his neat teeth could be seen opening and closing.
“Can I leave on my own?” Rong Yi found the cockpit’s rear door and tried the handle, but it was locked.
She furrowed her brows.
“You are unhappy,” the captain said, getting closer. “Why are you unhappy? All passengers on the Goddess of Dawn should be happy!”
“I understand, long sea voyages can be mentally destabilizing.” The captain extended his skeletal hand towards her. “Come, let me take you to the infirmary for treatment.”
“After the treatment, you’ll be happy, forever happy!”
Rong Yi could guess what the so-called “treatment” entailed. She desperately dodged the captain’s skeletal hand, but her broken left arm made her unbalanced and unable to brace against the wall.
She was grabbed by the ankle by the lunging captain. The skeletal grip cut into her skin, and she fell to the ground!
“Little Ai!” She reached for the small octopus above her head, only to find it gone!
“What is this?” Rong Yi looked back, seeing the captain holding the struggling small octopus, and furrowed her brows in confusion.
Perhaps it was due to the dungeon’s plot design, or maybe Ai Yuesheng was restrained by the game’s rules, so the NPCs no longer feared it. The captain’s skeletal grip tightened, and the octopus’s soft body oozed through the bones like liquid, making a sound like a plastic bag being crumpled.
His hand bones likely pressed against the octopus’s vocal organ, causing it to emit pitiful “wooo” protests.
“Let it go!” Rong Yi quickly stood up and cautiously approached the captain.
The captain, noticing her anxiety, flashed a sinister smile on his still-human half-face.
“Are you worried about it?”
“Ah, it makes you unhappy.”
“I will make the source of your unhappiness disappear.”
The skeletal hand gripped tighter, and Rong Yi shouted, “Activate! ‘Meet the Parent’!”
The captain’s tightening hand froze.
The small octopus emitted a deep, hoarse male voice: “Let go.”
The skeletal hand trembled, and the octopus slipped through the bones. Rong Yi quickly caught it.
The captain nervously took off his hat, clutching it in his hand, his sharp bony fingers nearly tearing it apart. His usually calm and reliable voice now cracked with anxiety.
“Si-sister-in-law.”
He glanced nervously at Rong Yi. “I’m sorry, it was just the dungeon plot, all part of the plot…”
Rong Yi’s innate skill had a limited daily usage time. Unless absolutely necessary, she didn’t want to waste this precious hour of life-saving time.
But just now, seeing the small octopus nearly crushed by the captain, she activated the skill without a second thought.
The soft body fell into her palm, like a heart returning to its place.
“Are you okay?” she asked Ai Yuesheng cautiously. Even though it was a soft-bodied creature, being squeezed too hard would still cause injury, right?
“Captain wipes his forehead and says, ‘It’s okay, it should be fine!’ and quickly continues, ‘Yes, it’s my fault for not recognizing you, big brother.’
The small octopus coughs hoarsely and says, ‘There have been some changes in appearance, so it’s understandable that you didn’t recognize me.’
Rong Yi looks at the small octopus, then at the captain, then back at the captain, and then at the small octopus again.
The small octopus with its deep blue round eyes looks embarrassed as it scratches its head with its tentacles. ‘Well, in the Lucky Carnival, I had the strongest overall strength, so they all called me big brother.’
It turns out that when Anna called ‘big brother’ in the previous instance, it wasn’t Ai Yuesheng replacing a character in the instance, but he was actually the boss of the entire game!
Rong Yi exclaims, ‘So… they called me big sister because…’
The small octopus interrupts, ‘I invaded your personal game system. In the eyes of NPCs, you have my mark, so you are automatically recognized as the big sister!’
Though it has an octopus face, it beams with pride, ‘Even though I’m bound by game rules, as long as you can use your innate skills, with your intelligence, you can definitely ensure your safety. Aren’t I smart?’
Rong Yi gently squeezes his soft octopus head and chooses not to respond.
She finds him too cute; she fears saying anything now that might accidentally sound flirtatious.
She coughs softly and shifts her attention to the two in front of her, behaving like a primary school student standing politely in front of the captain.
Even though half of his body is a white skeleton.
‘Can you please take out the sea map and help us navigate back the way we came?’ Faced with the captain, Rong Yi unconsciously becomes more cautious and polite.
The captain nervously opens the dormant navigation system, ‘The sea map is right here, but I—’
‘I do not wish to return…’
Rong Yi frowns at the complicated lines and nautical parameters on the screen—she doesn’t understand.
She asks, ‘Do we need to meet those conditions in the instance for you to be able to return?’
The captain, playing with his hat, admits, ‘The plot of the instance I’m responsible for requires players to stay alert, subdue me, and take control of the ship.’
‘As for how the players return, that’s not my concern.’
After all, to take control of the cockpit, they must either kill or capture the captain NPC.
He is not obligated to help players return.
The captain glances at the small octopus on Rong Yi’s head and finds him not as terrifying as rumored, boldly stating, ‘Big brother, if you threaten me with force to return, my survival instinct will make me comply.’
‘However, life is precious, love is even more valuable! I will resist to the end for my love!’
Rong Yi mutters to herself, ‘No need for that. Your big brother is currently just a little water baby. You nearly squished him earlier, what can you threaten him with?’
But she has to maintain the façade of a big sister and not let the younger one see the true fighting power of the big brother.
‘You’re being extreme, Captain.’ Rong Yi changes her tone, wondering if Zhang Haiyang can understand what’s happening, and continues, ‘Is your big brother that kind of person? He has always been considerate of NPCs, a boss with both emotions and principles.’
The captain hesitates, ‘Is that so?’
Ai Yuesheng adds, ‘…Yes. If you have any difficulties, feel free to tell us.’
Rong Yi and the small octopus exchange a glance: Understand the subtle message behind the words. You’re really quick at adapting.”
The captain took two excited steps and looked out the window at the colorful clouds, “You, you are willing to help me? With the help of my brother, I will be able to–” He opened his arms, “Find my love!
He opened his arms, “Find my love!”
“Your love?” Rong Yi asked, “She’s missing?”
“Yes!” The captain wiped a tear from the corner of his eye, “She’s lost at sea – but I know she’s alive!”
“Because she’s a mermaid.”
Rong Yi spent half an hour in his skill to listen to the captain tell a love story that seemed like a fairy tale.
Once upon a time, there was only one mermaid on the surface of the sea in this copy, singing a ghostly song every night to lure players towards the deep sea of “death”.
In fact, it’s not really “death”, it’s just that if you enter the sea and swim more than a certain distance from the cruise ship, the game will determine that you have “detached from the main scene of the replica”, and then you will be forced to log out, and the mission will be failed.
The captain of the ship was a friendly NPC in the player’s camp, advising players not to “walk gently into that good night”.
At that time, the death rate of copies was not as high as it is now. Difficulty a, because the captain of the ship will be in order to save the players and “sacrifice”, the cruise ship navigation system will also be damaged by thunderstorms, the player must rely on the sextant, compass, and system charts tumbled out of the warehouse, the most primitive navigation positioning methods to control the ship back to the sea. At the same time, they must effectively utilize the ship’s supplies to ensure their survival.
More than a hundred players have to form an effective organization in this small independent and closed society, to reduce internal conflicts and to explore the survival potential of all the players as much as possible.
It can be said to be a multiplayer online strong social version of the sea wilderness survival.
This is a copy of the Aurora, which was once “difficult”.
However, three years ago, the Lucky Carnival game as a whole made huge changes, many copy rules were rewritten, and there were strict requirements for player mortality.
The Dawn Goddess replica was also changed accordingly.
As soon as players entered the duplicate, they would be mesmerized and addicted to its over-perfect illusion, forgetting their quests, and the reason they entered the game in the first place.
“And I, too, have become this damn thing.” The captain gave a bitter laugh, “The copy rules were rewritten, and I became the player’s enemy, preventing them from waking up, and letting them indulge as deep as possible in their beautiful dreams.”
“And at that time, she was still awake. My, sweet mermaid lady.”
“We were just ordinary coworkers, chatting across the water at the end of the day.”
“Being in such a lonely copy, facing such a beautiful and lovely girl, any NPC would fall.”
“I silently adore her, but I’ve never spoken of my feelings.”
“I always thought we had unlimited time to slow down and savor this wonderful process.”
“But I was wrong.”
“In the first round of the game after the change, an extremely determined player came back to his senses. He was so strong that he cut me limb from limb and threw me overboard from the stern of the ship.”
“He was also very smart, and quickly figured out how to use the ship’s navigation system.”
“The stern propeller, which had never moved, stirred.”
“And I was struggling in that sea.”
“Once upon a time, the death of an NPC was painless. But after the rule change, the pain of death for NPCs is no less than that of players.”
“I used to think it wasn’t my turn. After all, I’d become an evil spirit, hard to kill, and as long as I was trapped in a place where I couldn’t threaten the players, they’d win.”
“But even an evil spirit would be reduced to bone-crumb under a speeding propeller.”
“If they can survive with all their limbs removed, they’ll probably die a slow, painful death. I’m ready to resign myself to my fate, it doesn’t matter how painful it is, I’ll still be reborn.”
“At this moment, a pair of gentle hands grabbed me.”
“My mermaid, she noticed the changes in me and the doppelganger, always worryingly looking at me through the deep sea in the middle of the night with those beautiful eyes.”
“She quickly realized the danger I was in and despite her own safety, she came to my rescue!”
“She dragged me out of the harm’s way of the propeller, but herself—”
“got caught in it.”
“‘It’s okay, I will die quickly, it won’t be so painful. Wait for my rebirth.’ At the last moment, she smiled and said to me like that.”
Rong Yi had already leaned against the wall, sitting down like a child listening to a story, completely captivated, couldn’t help but ask, “And then you never found her again?”
The captain shook his head. “No.”
“Did I mention that she was very beautiful, with a kind of striking beauty that was completely contrary to her gentle personality?”
“She also had a dazzling, rainbow-like tail.”
“Ah!” Rong Yi couldn’t help but exclaim, “It’s the one we saw—”
The captain nodded. “It’s those mermaids you saw.”
A creepy feeling crawled up Rong Yi’s spine. “But, you said there was only one mermaid in the copy, why are there so many ‘hers’ now?”
“And we were on the island before, your big brother, he—” Rong Yi hesitated, not sure if he should continue, your big brother killed more than a dozen of your admirers.
The captain smiled bitterly. “Killed a lot of mermaids, didn’t he? You don’t have to be shy to tell me. Because I know, those mermaids—”
He said fiercely, “They are all fakes! They wear her shell, but don’t even have a mind.”
“They are disgusting puppets created by the new rules of the copy!”
“And my beloved…” the captain gazed outside the cockpit at the dazzling colored clouds like a mermaid’s tail, murmured:
“She has peacefully walked into that good night…”
Author’s note: Excerpt from Dylan Thomas’ poem “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”. Some angels may have heard this poem in the movie “Interstellar”. The poem expresses resistance to death.
