Chapter 127
Chapter 127
Because Zone A only had five people left, Zone F could only send five contestants as well.
Based on her analysis of previous Scripts, Zhuang Yao had gained a rough understanding of the System’s touchy nature. It might very well throw them into a Script full of danger just to go head-to-head with Ning Wang, who had been leading the NPCs around.
To ensure the team’s overall safety, Rao Lin had the less combat-capable Zhuang Yao and Luo Li stay behind.
[Player Ning Banxian, welcome to the Script “Zombie Crisis.”]
[Next, we will introduce the background of this Script: This is a world overrun by zombies. Infected humans undergo a certain kind of mutation, allowing them to resonate with nature and gain special abilities. In the course of fighting against the zombies, humanity discovered that some mysterious species seems to be lurking in the deep sea.]
[Your Script identity: Sea Queen.]
[Your hidden identity: Murderer.]
[Your condition for killing: As long as you are together with your companion. Make sure you’re together, okay?]
He’d already played a bride before, so being a Sea Queen didn’t seem like much.
But the main quest was far too vague. Ning Shuo stared at the phrase “fight against the zombies.”
Surely it wasn’t asking him to win a victory for humanity, was it?
Ning Shuo had just tried to stand up when he lost his balance and fell to the ground.
In shock, he twisted around to look at his legs.
…A fishtail.
A real, living one.
A merperson’s tail.
He’d turned into a fish??
Ning Shuo now had a very concrete understanding of what the identity “Sea Queen” meant.
So it was the Sea Queen of the merfolk.
That mysterious species was actually the Merfolk Clan.
It took him a while to get used to the tail before he barely managed to learn how to move around with it.
Or rather, how to swim.
He looked around and discovered that this Script actually came with a character guide too: the original host’s diary.
Sister Yao’s analysis really was impressive.
The character setup had already been prepared for them, and with the zombie setting on top of that, this was most likely a simple, brutal survival Script. If your fighting ability was poor, you’d definitely be at a disadvantage.
Ning Shuo glanced at his fishtail.
Resonating with nature… so had he resonated with the merfolk race born from nature itself?
He skimmed through the diary. The whole thing was basically… a lovestruck youth’s pining?
The first page was fairly normal. It even revealed that this person had come with a mission.
He was an esper from Zone X’s esper base. Among the very few espers in Zone X, Ning Banxian was the only one capable of resonating with the ocean.
And as soon as his legs entered the water, they would turn into a tail.
So Zone X had assigned him a mission: gain the trust of the Merfolk Clan and join forces with them to defeat the zombies.
However, after coming to the sea, Ning Banxian seemed to have undergone a change of heart.
And apparently because Ning Banxian was too good-looking, after the merfolk brought him into the sea, they presented him to the Sea King. In keeping with the merfolk’s do-whatever-they-want style, the Sea King casually granted him the empty title of Sea Queen.
Ning Banxian had also fallen in love with the Sea King at first sight, then only grown more smitten at second sight. For no clear reason, he had gone from being a Mission Agent to someone who spent all day in the merfolk palace waiting for the Sea King to come see him, like some resentful consort shut away in the depths of the palace.
After reading the entire diary and stripping out all the rambling fluff, Ning Shuo realized that he was also a Sea Queen whose title was about to be abolished.
Looks like his relationship with the Merfolk Clan was pretty bad.
Ning Shuo flipped through the diary, not in any rush to seek out the Merfolk Clan and mend relations just yet.
He stared at the line in the diary, [Why hasn’t the Sea King come to see me yet?], while thinking about the Murderer’s killing condition.
As long as I’m with my companion.
Such a simple restriction?
PvP Scripts were divided into single-Murderer and multiple-Murderer scenarios.
Ning Shuo tapped his fingers lightly, wondering: Could this Script be a multiple-Murderer one?
That was why the condition for killing specifically emphasized that they had to be together.
His top priority right now was to find his teammates, and while he was at it, look for the possible Murderer teammate on his side.
However, just as Ning Shuo was about to go out, he was stopped by two strangely shaped merfolk outside. “Sea Queen, you’re in confinement. Only when the Sea King relents and allows you out can you leave.”
Yeah, his status really wasn’t much to speak of.
Ning Shuo changed expressions in an instant. “Then… when will the Sea King come?”
One of the merfolk let out a cold snort. “His Majesty is burdened with countless affairs every day. Sea Queen, by always being this willful, aren’t you just causing trouble for His Majesty?”
“But…”
“Sea Queen, please return!”
With that, they ignored Ning Shuo’s resistance and immediately blocked him back inside.
Ning Shuo wasn’t about to just go back. He had planned to slip away in secret, but after making a round of the place, he discovered there wasn’t even a window.
In the water, Ning Shuo didn’t even need to take out his playing cards to know exactly what their fate would be.
And underwater, it was hard for him to conceal his presence. He’d be noticed by those two merfolk after only a few steps.
In this Script, he also couldn’t send messages to his teammates through the Virtual Screen.
The System had placed Ning Shuo in a position that was practically isolated.
Especially if he was the only Player in the sea.
He pulled out that diary made of special sea-coral material again, trying to find a way to use his ability.
…There was no method.
Either this ability was just too useless, serving no purpose beyond turning him into a merfolk.
Or the original owner had been too hopelessly lovestruck.
So lovestruck that out of a hundred pages in the notebook, ninety-nine were about that Sea King who never came to see him.
Ning Shuo: They can all die.
At present, his only option was to lure that Sea King over. Otherwise, there was no telling how long he’d be locked up in confinement here.
Ning Shuo found a knife, frowned, and viciously slashed his tail.
Ning Banxian was afraid of pain. The diary hadn’t mentioned him ever hurting himself, so apparently he hadn’t tried a pity play like this before.
His face pale, Ning Shuo crawled to the entrance of the palace and pointed at the wound on his tail, so deep the bone was visible. “I’m hurt… help me tell the Sea King.”
He was beautiful enough; otherwise, the Sea King would never have made him Sea Queen based on his looks alone. Even if that position was basically a joke, and within the Merfolk Clan he was more like a decorative mascot.
Using the beauty universally acknowledged by the clan to play pitiful, Ning Shuo actually made one of the merfolk hesitate. “Fine, I’ll report it to the Sea King. And I’ll also find the sea…”
Before he could finish, a mighty procession was already approaching.
At the front, the Sea King swept Ning Shuo up into his arms. “Go call the sea physician!”
Ning Shuo grabbed his collar and cursed under his breath, “I thought it’d be like slicing my leg with a knife. Who knew a fish tail would hurt this much!”
Ning Wang’s steps paused almost imperceptibly. “You did this to yourself?”
Right. He forgot.
Ning Shuo nuzzled against him soothingly. “Wasn’t it because I wanted to see Ningning?”
“You’re lying to me. You had no idea I was the Sea King. You just wanted to hurt yourself and lure over some random Sea King, who-knows-what.”
This was the hard part about Narcissus, Ning Shuo thought.
For example, trying to fool the other person was really difficult.
The other side could see through it at a glance.
His tail really did hurt terribly, and Ning Shuo’s lips had already gone white. “Ningning, who talks about himself like he’s not a thing?”
As his consciousness grew hazy, Ning Shuo saw Ning Wang anxiously asking why the sea physician still hadn’t arrived.
Would this count as ooc? he thought.
Why was it always like this? Somehow, he always ended up seeing Ningning looking worried over him.
He really ought to take better care of himself.
Otherwise, he’d just keep making Ningning’s heart ache.
And seeing Ningning so anxious made his own heart ache too.