Beating Instances through Words Left by the Dead

Chapter 535: Chapter 263: Shaky Footage (Part 2)

Wu Chang curled his lips and said, ”Attack, who among the four can win against anyone?”

Lei Huo shook his head and said, ”The four of them aren’t strong, but as soon as they descend into madness, the research station will lose power, and the darkness will flood in.”

”There are many players who claim to want to take them down to see what can be gained, but in the end, they are still alive, while among those who really tried, only two White Tower players survived by forcibly escaping using Dungeon Items.”

Wu Chang continued to ask, ”Deputy Director Lei, you said they would cooperate in collecting oil, do you know where to collect oil?”

Lei Huo nodded and said, ”Collecting oil is one of the conditions to leave Night Island. When we first entered the research station, we made this request.”

Lei Huo pointed at Colonel Johnson and said, ”We watched him carry a glass bottle into the depths of the research station. There was no light there, so we couldn’t follow. Now with your Night Traveling Lamp, we can take a look.”

The research station on Night Island is vast, but because of an accident, four-fifths of the station has turned into ruins, shrouded in darkness, leaving only the lobby, the recreation room, the storage room, and the duty room intact.

On Night Island, being alone is extremely foolish, even within the research station.

The three returned to call upon Director Gao and Zhao Yan, and with the light of the Night Traveling Lamp, headed towards the areas of the research station engulfed in darkness.

Before Colonel Johnson started collecting oil, Lei Huo marked him, and now, as Lei Huo activated Energy, two rows of footprints appeared on the ground, marking both the way in and out.

They followed the incoming footprints all the way to the depths of the research station, where the footprints ended in front of a heavy iron door.

Wu Chang looked at the others and asked, ”Who can pick a lock?”

Sword Star gestured, and the Flying Sword directly split the door lock. After retrieving the Flying Sword, he added, ”I can.”

Wu Chang shrugged, pushed open the iron door, and found a staircase leading down.

As soon as the door was opened, everyone was hit by a surging stench, not of decaying flesh or blood, but rather the odor of masses of dead fish.

Following the staircase all the way to the bottom, everyone looked at the scene before them, realizing where the earlier stench originated.

Hanging upside down from the ceiling of the underground space were more than thirty fish-headed human-bodied monsters, presumably the deep-sea mermen mentioned in the Night Traveling Lamp’s description.

These deep-sea mermen differed from the mermen of Peaceful Town who were large, covered in scales, clearly marine creatures.

The deep-sea mermen before them resembled ordinary humans with fish heads, with human bodies and clothing of various styles.

Changed yet not fully transformed.

The method of oil extraction was very simple: cut open the fish head of the deep-sea merman, set up a candle to heat it, and the oil inside the fish head would slowly melt and drip into a glass bottle below.

Once the candle extinguished, the cold air would instantly freeze the oil, preventing wastage.

Nearly half of the hanging deep-sea mermen had their heads cut open, their oil extracted.

The fish heads, drained of oil, withered and dried, becoming wrinkled and reverting to a humanoid form.

From these dried fish heads, Wu Chang recognized two people; they were teammates who accompanied Wells.

He counted the bodies — thirty-eight of them, not more, not less. Other players might stop here, thinking all the researchers except the four Survivors had turned into deep-sea mermen in the attack years ago.

But for Wu Chang, this was not the end.

Because the numbers matched, but the identities did not.

Among these 38 bodies, Fujita Hideyuki was absent.

Fujita Hideyuki, as an explorer, frequently operated outdoors; he was dark-skinned, short but robust like a steel cannon.

However, of those hanging there, only two were pure Black; none matched the description of a dark-skinned sports student.

During the research station attack, thirty-eight died and four went mad. Fujita Hideyuki, who knew the most, faked his death to escape, using a false corpse to replace himself.

Who was the mastermind behind the upheaval back then? It’s really tricky to guess.

Wu Chang clicked his tongue, glanced around, wondering if Fujita Hideyuki had been hiding in the research station for the past four years.

The sudden appearance of over thirty corpses of natives, the group initially wanted to search the bodies for valuable information, but found although they wore clothes from their former lives, all items had been taken.

The perpetrator was very cautious, but why would he let Johnson and the other three madmen live instead of eliminating them?

Yet the group wasn’t entirely without gains; in the underground space, they found a backup Night Traveling Lamp, filled it with the bottle’s oil, and thus had two sources of light, greatly speeding up their exploration of the station.

Past the hanging mermen they ventured, entering the second underground level, where they found a pool.

At the bottom of the pool, they could see another metal door.

Wu Chang looked at Sword Star and asked, ”Can you open this door?”

Sword Star operated the Flying Sword, shooting it to the water, but as it touched the water, it slowed down considerably as if piercing a solid, becoming extremely sluggish.

Once it finally reached the metal door, the Flying Sword was left with little force, only able to leave a white mark on the iron door.

Sword Star retrieved the Flying Sword, speaking with a solemn tone, ”There’s a Power in the water, rapidly absorbing the Energy within entrants, I can’t manage. Plus, through the Flying Sword, I can feel...”

Sword Star stopped mid-sentence as he realized Wu Chang was stripping off his sleeves and pants.

”Why are you taking off your clothes?”

Wu Chang tied a rope around his waist and tossed it to Sword Star, saying, ”If I drown, just pull me up.”

Sword Star’s mind was somewhat short-circuited and before he could react, he saw Wu Chang already diving into the water.

”Hey, wait!”

As Sword Star said, Wu Chang immediately felt a special suction from the water, a suction mixed with faint Divinity that ordinary Power couldn’t resist, explaining why Sword Star’s Flying Sword seemed ineffective.

But this touch of Divinity didn’t affect him much.

He dove all the way to the bottom, inspecting the metal gate there.

This underwater gate must have been meticulously designed; it sealed the path to lower depths while allowing seawater to flow into the pool above, blocking Wu Chang’s attempts to drain it.

The materials of the metal door were sturdy. Wu Chang exerted force, but even with his Master of Breaking the Game bonus adding 108 points to his Power, he couldn’t budge it. Unless he brought his True Self to enact Ocean Race Transformation, brute force alone wasn’t going to open it easily.

A key must be found; maybe those four madmen know something.

But before that, he had something else to ask.

Taking advantage of the underwater darkness where others couldn’t see, he turned his back on the group, took out the All-Knowing Crystal, and whispered:

”If you want what’s beneath the water, you better pitch in.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, his vision blurred, and a complex Talisman appeared in his mind, rotating and flashing twice before settling onto the screen in the duty room.

The next moment, the clues in front of Wu Chang vanished.

So the clue indeed was the duty room’s television.

He had just prepared to turn back to the shore when he felt a sudden pull from the shore, urgently dragging him out of the water.

Upon emerging, Wu Chang was confronted with Sword Star’s questioning eyes, ”Are you insane?! I just said the danger in the water, and you dive right in?”

Wu Chang spread his hands saying, ”Don’t be so tense. I have Ocean Race Transformation, I’m half Aquatic, I can feel this sea won’t harm me.”

Sword Star and the others eyed Wu Chang, glancing repeatedly to ascertain that Wu Chang was genuinely confident, not under the influence of malicious darkness, and only then did they relax.

Director Gao sighed and said, ”Even if you’re confident, take it slow next time; strategize a safe plan before acting.”

Lei Huo did not preach to Wu Chang but was more concerned about what Wu Chang saw underwater, ”What’s it like below?”

Wu Chang: ”The door below is thick, needs a key to open, but I found something underwater that suggests maybe we should check with those four madmen, they might provide clues.”

There being only two levels in the underground space, no further exploration was necessary. As Wu Chang spoke, the group followed him back to the duty room.

Upon returning, the four madmen were still blankly staring at the television.

Wu Chang sat beside Colonel Johnson, parallel with the madmen, watching the television.

Looking towards the TV, the Talisman demonstrated by the All-Knowing Crystal reappeared before Wu Chang’s eyes, landing on the television screen and beginning to spin.

The shaking video content, paired with the spinning Talisman, surprisingly rendered the spiritually polluting video normal.