Chapter 124: The Sea of Wandering 17
There was still a long time before midnight. Zhuang Ningyu asked everyone to go back and catch up on some sleep to prepare for the next arrival of the mermaids. He leaned on the single sofa and continued watching the video materials he hadn’t finished before.
On the screen was the scene when the rescue team first landed on the island and received their role cards. The footage came from the recorders pinned to each team member’s chest. It was a bit chaotic and shaky, requiring some time and eyesight to sort out.
Yi Ke sat on the armrest of the sofa, taking notes with pen and paper. They wanted to figure out whether the players’ role selection in this Rule Zone was designated or random.
First, it was certain that Fu Dong’s King and Song Qiaowei’s Queen were definitely designated spots.
Secondly, Qing Gang had tried four roles successively, and none of the candles lit up until he finally chose the Princess, so he was likely a designated role as well.
However, the role of the Bard rejected Zhong Mu and chose Du Bai.
“Why is that?” Yi Ke twirled the pen in his fingers, looking at the person on the sofa with doubt in his voice. “The Princess currently has no clear skills, so we can’t tell why it chose Qing Gang. But the Bard’s skills are already very clear, yet Du Bai doesn’t seem to have any traits fitting this role.”
The colleagues from the capital team graduated from the same major at the same university and had similar hobbies like eating, drinking, sports, and traveling. Du Bai’s combat power wasn’t significantly higher or lower, and subsequent actual combat proved he couldn’t control the poetry anthology very well. So why was he specially chosen?
Zhuang Ningyu crooked his finger. Yi Ke immediately leaned down and planted a loud kiss on his cheek, asking obediently: “What is it, wifey?”
“…” Zhuang Ningyu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He pinched a bit of Yi Ke’s cheek and pulled it down slightly, while his other hand dragged the progress bar, signaling the other to stop looking at him and look at the screen seriously. The first scene showed Zhong Mu sitting in front of the Bard; the candle didn’t light up. So she moved to the Minister’s seat, and this time the candle lit up. The second scene showed Du Bai sitting in front of the Bard, and the candle lit up. Aside from this, neither of them sat in any other positions.
Zhuang Ningyu patted the cheek he had pinched red. Understand now?
Yi Ke reacted quickly: “You mean, the role of the Bard is actually random; anyone can take it. But Sister Zhong couldn’t because she was already designated as the Minister beforehand… The Minister is the designated role?”
Zhuang Ningyu: “Mmh.”
His “Mmh” sounded much more normal than the previous two days; one wouldn’t notice the squeakiness unless listening closely. If the Bard was a random role, then its paired Listener should also be randomly assigned, as the footage showed Alice was the first player to choose it, and the candle lit up smoothly. This would also explain why he and Yi Ke, upon entering the Rule Zone, directly became the second Bard and Listener without any screening.
So, the currently designated roles confirmed were: Fu Dong as the King, Song Qiaowei as the Queen, Qing Gang as the Princess, and Zhong Mu as the Minister.
After clarifying this, Zhuang Ningyu closed the laptop and tilted his head back. Yi Ke familiarly covered his eyes with warm palms to help him relax, then asked: “It’s still early. Do you want to do the latest vocal exercises?”
The signal within the Rule Zone had just been restored, and Director Wang’s medical orders came in one after another, reminding him to complete all rehabilitation courses in small amounts multiple times a day and absolutely not to slack off. Zhuang Ningyu moved Yi Ke’s hand from his eyes to his neck, leaning his whole body toward him to watch the vocal guidance on the phone together—
First, relax the throat and neck muscles. Second, do several sets of abdominal breathing. Zhuang Ningyu was already proficient in these two steps, repeating them daily. But the third step, vocal exercises, had a small change.
“Relax the lips and emit an ‘Mmm…’ sound with soothing breath as much as possible. The throat should be completely relaxed, avoiding excessive force. Feeling a slight vibration is enough. It is recommended to start from a mid-low pitch, then try to gradually raise or lower it within a comfortable range.”
Zhuang Ningyu only “Mmm-ed” twice before shutting his mouth because he felt the sound was a bit outrageous. Although it was indeed somewhat related to comfort, it largely shouldn’t appear here and now. Beside him, Yi Ke bit his lower lip, one hand continuing to gently stroke his beautiful collarbone, while the other hand forcefully rubbed his own forehead as he turned to look out the porthole.
Ah, the sun is so big!
Zhuang Ningyu scrolled down the screen. Forget it, let’s skip this step for now and look at the next one.
“Choose a favorite vowel syllable, try to vocalize and gently prolong it, such as ‘Ah…’, ‘Uh…’, or ‘Oh…’.”
Zhuang Ningyu: “?”
After glancing at the medical advice twice, the person beside him had already switched to vibration mode. Zhuang Ningyu felt as if he were sitting in the massage chair of the 4D cinema in Fuxingyuan Alley; even the world seemed to be shaking. Yi Ke held it in until his whole body trembled wildly. Finally, when Zhuang Ningyu, with a speechless face, wanted to walk away, Yi Ke completely exploded. He grabbed his waist, buried his head in the hollow of his back, and laughed for nearly five minutes.
Zhuang Ningyu: Endless, that’s enough.
But the exercises still had to be done; after all, even cursing wasn’t fluent right now. So Zhuang Ningyu eventually accepted Yi Ke’s suggestion to go outdoors for training together. The sunset hadn’t completely fallen into the sea level yet. After a whole day of sun exposure, the deck was emitting warmth like a giant steamer. Generally, no one would choose this time for a sauna. Yi Ke moved a sun umbrella over for him: “Okay, let’s start.”
Leaving the room they shared, the atmosphere seemed much more normal. The environment at the stern was open, and there was no need to worry about being heard by colleagues. So Zhuang Ningyu pressed his thumb on his Adam’s apple and opened his mouth boldly: “Ah—”
Yi Ke didn’t laugh this time. He wiped sweat and handed water timely from the side, retrieving his own merit as a top!
After “Ah-ing” for a while, Zhuang Ningyu “Ah-ed” out some experience, his throat stretching into various strange forms of “Ah,” flat and round. Yi Ke was amused. He looked at the time on his watch and reminded: “That’s about it. Go back and rest a bit?”
Zhuang Ningyu exhaled, took the water cup from him, gulped down a large mouthful, and puffed up his cheeks looking into the distance. Yi Ke was captivated by his wife’s cute pufferfish face. Just as he extended a finger to poke it, Zhuang Ningyu suddenly swallowed the water, frowned, took a few quick steps, and leaned over the railing.
“What’s wrong?” Yi Ke asked.
Following his gaze, they saw that on the originally calm, sparkling sea surface, the glimmering golden reflection of the sun suddenly began to ripple and shake, with increasing amplitude. Ink-thick black slime oozed out from the seabed in strands. Moments later, with a “splash,” a siren with fluorescent blue skin abruptly drilled out from the center of the vortex! The “black slime” wasn’t slime but her hair. And held in the siren’s hand was a magnificent scepter inlaid with rubies!
The siren emitted a sharp, long chant, leaping high out of the sea, and respectfully handed the ruby scepter to Zhuang Ningyu. Then, like all NPCs in games who completed their tasks, she sank back into the depths of the ocean.
The slime, vortex, and agitated sunlight all vanished without a trace. The sunset also fell into the sea level at this moment, and the ruby scepter had turned into a card—
[King’s Scepter] — Loyal subjects, full of reverence, are willing to bow under the scepter and obey its decree.
All this happened too fast. The two looked at each other, still trying to make sense of it, when a new set of footsteps suddenly came from not far away. Yi Ke pulled Zhuang Ningyu up, and they quickly walked a few steps to hide in the shadows.
Fu Dong and Song Qiaowei appeared on the deck.
“Are you sure it’s here?” Song Qiaowei asked.
Fu Dong answered: “Yes.”
The couple stood at the railing, looking at the sea about to be swallowed by the night. Only a thin line of gold remained on the horizon, and the wind was getting colder. In the silence, Song Qiaowei glanced at her husband, as if wondering why he hadn’t started yet. Feeling his wife’s gaze, Fu Dong finally opened his mouth and squeezed out a thin “Ah” from his throat.
Zhuang Ningyu and Yi Ke: “?”
The waves grew larger, but only larger. Sunset, moonrise, tide ebb and flow—the most normal occurrences.
Seeing no movement in the sea, Fu Dong had to raise and prolong his voice.
“Ah—”
Splash!
A huge wave hit the ship heavily, drenching the two like drowned rats.
“Pfft pfft!” Song Qiaowei wiped her face indiscriminately, holding the railing to barely stand steady. Fu Dong also swallowed a large mouthful of seawater, salty and fishy with a smell of decay. Remembering the misshapen mermaids filling this sea area, he almost vomited out all the meals of his life. When he shouted again, his voice carried a bit of exasperation.
Song Qiaowei’s expression was quite complex. She never thought there would be a day when her husband would… really look like a fool!
Zhuang Ningyu’s phone screen lit up; it was a new message from Zhong Mu—
“Captain Zhuang, for some unknown reason, Fu Dong is currently sneaking around on the stern deck, shouting in a low voice at the sea surface. Song Qiaowei is there too.”
Zhuang Ningyu: I know. Inform other colleagues not to interfere. Let him shout.
Zhong Mu: Okay.
Half an hour later, Fu Dong, his voice hoarse from shouting, didn’t get anything from the sea and could only return to the cabin resentfully. Seeing his ashen face, Song Qiaowei tactfully didn’t ask much. She just closed the door and sat down to comfort her husband: “Maybe… we need to wait a bit longer?”
Fu Dong gripped the empty glass water bottle in his hand, so hard that his knuckles cracked. About an hour ago, a new hint appeared on his King card—“If the old King intends to rebuild the covenant, please chant in a low voice at the stern at sunset. At that time, the siren will present the scepter for the monarch to wield.”
He went on time and chanted, but only got a bellyful of stinking seawater without seeing even the shadow of the scepter. The discomfort in his stomach surged again. He didn’t think the hint on the card would be wrong. So, not getting the scepter left only two possibilities: first, the chanting method was wrong; second… He tightened his grip on the water bottle and looked at his wife with an ambiguous gaze.
Perhaps I should have gone alone just now.
Actually, Fu Dong hadn’t thought about acting alone, but considering they lived in the same cabin, it was hard to leave silently alone. Moreover, on this cruise ship, opponents were everywhere, and his wife was his only—at least for now—his only ally. Letting the Queen realize the King’s concealment too early wouldn’t benefit this game, so he ultimately chose to bring her along. He didn’t expect to return empty-handed because of this.
Song Qiaowei couldn’t see the text on the King card, and Fu Dong didn’t tell her the full poem. Before leaving, he just perfunctorily said a siren would bring a gift later. Now that her husband didn’t get the gift, she naturally didn’t know the reason. She could only get up to help put the water bottle on the table into the trash can, then wrapped her shawl around herself and sat on another sofa.
Shadows fell heavy, hiding the eyes under her long curly hair.
In Room 103, Yi Ke was looking at the newly acquired [King’s Scepter]. Let’s call it an [Item Card] for now. Unlike role cards, the text on item cards wouldn’t fade. In the bottom left corner, the current owner’s identity appeared in gold stamping: Listener.
The Listener obtained the King’s scepter, but all colleagues in the room felt this was reasonable, including the capital team members who hadn’t spent many days with Zhuang Ningyu. It showed that the Emperor was the Emperor; he didn’t need to see every subject personally for his majesty and benevolence to cover the four seas.
Zhong Mu’s phone recorded a short clip of Fu Dong “chanting” facing the sea, bringing a rare moment of joy to everyone’s puzzle-solving mission this time. Qing Gang watched it three times in a row, laughing until his stomach hurt: “Holy crap hahahahaha what kind of ghostly noise is this.”
Zhong Mu laughed enough before remembering to ask: “By the way, Captain Zhuang, how did you know you could summon a siren from the sea?”
For this question, Zhuang Ningyu turned to look at Yi Ke with a deep gaze. Think before you answer.
Yi Ke put his arm around his shoulder. Understood, wifey, don’t worry!
“Lucky guess.”
“Lucky guess?”
“Because this mission is really too much like a game. And in almost all games related to the sea, there’s siren chanting,” Yi Ke answered crisply. “So we decided to try it at sunset. We just felt today’s sun was a bit ominous, looking like something was going to happen. Didn’t expect to actually grab the item card before Fu Dong.”
Capital Team: “Wow, that works?”
Jincheng Team: “Of course it works. How does the saying go? ‘The chosen one is always favored by the Goddess of Destiny.’ Our Captain Zhuang is a wondrous person who has had to sleep holding the Imperial Seal since he was five. It’s said even his pajamas are dragon robes.”
Zhuang Ningyu: “…”
Ye Jiaoyue looked at the hint on the item card—“Loyal subjects, full of reverence, are willing to bow under the scepter and obey its decree.”
There were ten Ministers in this game. According to the literal meaning, this item card should be able to control them at certain specific nodes.
“Fu Dong was discovered by us by accident this time, but in places we haven’t discovered, he definitely has more concealments.” Ye Jiaoyue returned the card to Zhuang Ningyu, reminding the team members, “Pay more attention to him and Song Qiaowei later. After all, whether it’s President Fu outside the Rule Zone or the King inside, neither is easy to deal with. For benefits, he can sacrifice others at any time.”
…
Dinner was still typical crew food. On the way back, the sky was dark and heavy. Yi Ke held Zhuang Ningyu’s hand, chatting idly as they walked: “To be honest, if we weren’t currently in a Rule Zone but playing a large-scale holographic game, it would actually be quite interesting.”
Zhuang Ningyu opened the door with the key card and stood by the window to stretch his muscles. Yi Ke poured a glass of warm water, watching him finish his medicine and syrup, then hugged him from behind, nuzzling and asking, “Wifey, wifey, why didn’t you respond to what I just said?”
Zhuang Ningyu gave a cursory “Mmh” to show he responded.
“What ‘Mmh’? You never ignore me regarding work.” Yi Ke was relentless.
Amazing observation, amazing memory, strong, and acted spoiled by rubbing against him—truly hard to brush off. Zhuang Ningyu was forced to pick up the topic just now and shared his thought upon hearing “large-scale holographic game”—Fu Han seemed to have this sector in his industries.
Yi Ke: “Tsk.”
Zhuang Ningyu cupped his face with both hands, gave a kiss. Stop barking.
Yi Ke: Acceptable.
The bittersweet taste of the throat syrup still lingered between his lips and teeth, cool. Yi Ke picked him up, looking up to kiss his Adam’s apple. Zhuang Ningyu dodged with a smile, signaling to put him down; there was a call.
Yi Ke didn’t let go, reaching for the phone with one hand to see who was so tactless—
Grandpa.
“Cough!” He hurriedly put his wife back on the small sofa properly, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, straightened his clothes, and anxiously ruffled his hair twice before sitting up straight and connecting the video call: “Hello Grandpa. It’s past 4 AM in China, right? Did you stay up all night?”
“Just got up. Old people sleep less.” Zhong Pinghe was wearing pajamas, seemingly in a guesthouse, not at the unit. He said, “Xiao Sun and the others found something. Haven’t organized it yet, but since Ningyu needs it urgently, I’m calling to tell you first.”
Before entering this Rule Zone, Zhuang Ningyu had already asked the investigation team to search for all information related to Kings and Queens in this sea area based on the scattered keywords sent by Ye Jiaoyue. After communication was restored, he sent more details to the investigation team so colleagues could cooperate with him more efficiently. Zhong Pinghe said, “Europe has no shortage of stories about Kings, Queens, and Princesses, but they are all old, and more than half are fairy tales with little reference value. What Xiao Sun found, which I think is more useful, is a card game popular among sailors.”
The game was called “Wandering Kingship.” Like this Rule Zone, each player drew a role card, then decided their gameplay based on the character’s background and mission.
“‘Wandering Kingship’ was very simple at first, needing only a deck of paper cards like poker. Offense and defense were clear, easy to learn, very suitable for killing time on the sea without signal. After it became popular, manufacturers made it into a single-player game. So ‘Wandering Kingship’ iterated step by step, with richer plots and more flexible gameplay. And then, here comes the key point.”
Zhuang Ningyu nodded. I’m ready, Grandpa, go ahead.
“A game company under Fu Han is developing the same game.”
As expected. Yi Ke also said, “We were just discussing this.”
“Of course, with current technology, Fu Han shouldn’t be able to turn a game into a Rule Zone; this violates the basic logic of Rule Zone appearance,” Zhong Pinghe continued. “So our current speculation is that a group of people, say sailors, once played a card game similar to ‘Wandering Kingship’ in that sea area, and during the game, a murder occurred, forming a Rule Zone. And Fu Han completed his own replication and modification based on this Rule Zone, erasing the original game players and making the card characters directly become players.”
Simply put, the original Rule Zone was people playing games; the modified Rule Zone was game characters playing themselves.
The investigation team quickly sent detailed information about this game. Zhuang Ningyu scrolled through it roughly, getting dizzy. Nearly a hundred characters, nearly a thousand item cards, and various dazzling skills—text and images totaling several gigabytes.
“He shouldn’t be able to completely integrate such a complex game into the Rule Zone,” Yi Ke said. “I’ll look at these things; you just need to refer to the basic logic.”
Zhuang Ningyu agreed, then asked Grandpa online: How is Fu Dong and Song Qiaowei’s child?
Zhong Pinghe replied: Still living in the US with Song’s mother. After Fu and Song’s incident, Fu Siheng hasn’t gone out to school, switching to home tutoring. Besides, someone has been secretly watching them. Not sure yet if it’s for protection or surveillance.
Fu Siheng had been in the US since birth and never returned, so information about him was hard to find. Currently, it was only known that due to congenital chromosomal abnormalities, his IQ seemed slightly lower than the average for his age. Although not serious, the Fu couple cared about this significantly. Song Qiaowei had secretly taken him to many medical institutions, but with little effect.
Fu Dong, who always thought highly of himself, must be very dissatisfied with his son’s defect. Perhaps this was one of the reasons he refused to bring him back to China and hid him instead. Yi Ke asked, “Then is it possible that those human experiments Fu Dong did secretly were also for his son? For example, trying to find a way to cure Fu Siheng’s chromosomal disease?”
Zhong Pinghe replied: Possible.
Zhuang Ningyu submitted an application to the investigation team, asking them to continue looking for information on Fu Siheng, the more detailed the better. The key point of the rift between the King and Queen in the game lay with the child. The information reflected on Qing Gang’s role card was limited and needed to be largely supplemented from the real world.
Time passed quickly amidst busy work. In the blink of an eye, the sky turned completely black like undissolvable ink. The sea under the night cover was often more terrifying, surging, violent, and manic than during the day!
When the clock hands overlapped, the new midnight finally descended again accompanied by muffled thunder.
The sea seemed to be stirred by an invisible giant hand. The ship was tossed high and fell heavily again. The seawater was bone-chillingly cold. Zhuang Ningyu gripped the mast tightly, looking coldly at the familiar, dense swarm of mermaids on the sea surface. They twisted and pushed each other with the waves, their tails slapping the spray, trying to tear the poet and his poetry anthology to pieces with greater numbers and sharper giant teeth!
“Traitor—” The fish swarm roared in unison.
The attack power of the poetry anthology didn’t weaken a bit due to the vicious abuse. Yi Ke spread his fingers, and the melting golden fire emitted blinding light in the pitch-black storm! Like a mechanical bird flying at high speed, it shuttled closely over the sea surface under the poet’s remote control. Its sharp wings cut open thick scales, leaving behind only screams and roars!
Yi Ke’s extraordinary memory and intrinsic love for poetry turned the anthology in his hand into the most terrifying weapon in this sea area. His gaze closely followed the golden line cutting the waves into countless fragments—slender and agile, dipping low in the storm, jumping on the wave tips. Like witnessing a graceful elf piercing through darkness, he actually felt a bit of romanticism similar to poetry in his heart. And in this tiny bit of the poet’s romantic sentiment, the mermaid clan was cut into pieces, screaming repeatedly by the suddenly expanding poetry anthology.
All tearing was futile. The mermaids’ wide-open sharp teeth would only be shattered by the poems. Besides the anthology, the poet himself was untouchable. Silver excerpt pages wrapped around him like snowflakes, the lines filled with surging reverence and brilliant love. amidst the hell-like violent wind and huge waves, they partitioned an absolutely safe and gentle harbor for the poet. The world was bumpy and wretched, but under the lover’s protection, the poet remained pure white and elegant.
“Traitor—” Finally, the waves receded, and the voices grew smaller until they disappeared completely.
Qing Gang leaned against the mast with his arms crossed: “Tsk tsk tsk, how long has it been, and they left cursing again?”
Zhong Mu had some doubts about her hearing: “Why do I feel like their roars just now carried a bit of desperate crying?”
Alice looked at the person beside her: “Do you have any thoughts on this?”
Du Bai answered decisively: “I’ll sign up for online classes as soon as I get back. But let’s be clear first, Xiao Yi’s level definitely isn’t something memorizing ‘300 Tang Poems’ can achieve.”
“‘Snowflakes on Mount Yan are as big as mats’, what’s the next line?”
“North wind rolls the earth, white grass breaks.”
“…” Brother, honestly, you really deserved to get your arm bitten.
In a hidden spot, two figures flashed back into the cabin after witnessing the entire battle.
