He Wuning was the first to react. He leapt up without hesitation and struck at the seaweed king’s tentacle, gripping the edge of the stone bridge.
The tentacle snapped, and with its foothold gone, the seaweed king was gradually dragged toward the shallows by Yi Luo.
But it didn’t give up. It kept stretching its tentacles toward the bridge, and He Wuning ran along the stone path, cutting down every tentacle that reached out.
It was like a gardener trimming the unruly branches of a decorative shrub.
If this seaweed king had even a little intelligence, it would have realized by now that it shouldn’t reach for the bridge again. But it wasn’t smart—it only followed the game’s preset behavior, endlessly repeating the action of extending its tentacles just to have them chopped off.
With He Wuning taking the lead, Team Five operatives quickly understood what to do. They formed a guarded line along the edge of the bridge. Whenever the seaweed king stretched out a tentacle, they immediately severed it, allowing Yi Luo to drag the creature toward the shallows much more smoothly.
They could already see the people waiting near the coast in the distance.
Yi Luo leaned out the car window and waved at them.
Xue Xun admired his ability to remain calm and cheerful no matter the situation. He turned toward the girl beside him. “Ready?”
The girl had pure white hair that looked natural rather than dyed—she was likely an albino.
And her right wrist joint looked unnatural, like a doll’s—it seemed to be a prosthetic limb.
Xue Xun held an umbrella over her to protect her from harsh sunlight; she had many rare allergies, too.
This was the special-operations, targeted-type combatant he had brought—Lu Bai.
Lu Bai clearly knew who Yi Luo was. She bounced on her toes, excited. “That’s Brother Yi! Ah, he’s here too! Is that his little boat? It’s so cute!”
Xue Xun rubbed his nose. “You can’t really call it Brother Yi’s boat—it’s his teammate’s boat.”
Lu Bai beamed again. “So cute.”
Xue Xun chuckled, speaking to her with particular gentleness. “If you praise his system like that, it’ll be really happy.”
“Okay!” Lu Bai lifted her pale-blue skirt slightly. Her left hand wore a strange glove shaped like a clenched fist—she seemed forced to keep her hand closed in that posture.
She took a step forward, her young face unusually solemn. “Then… I should begin, right?”
Xue Xun hesitated for a moment, a trace of reluctance showing on his face, then nodded.
Yi Luo’s boat had already reached them. He flicked the tail of the vessel with practiced flair, slamming the seaweed king almost onto the shore. From the window, he grinned. “Yo, Xiao Bai. Don’t push yourself too hard. If you can’t eat the rest of it, leave it to us.”
He pointed toward He Wuning on the stone bridge. “See that fierce-looking big brother? He’s amazing at fighting—one swing, one seaweed king.”
He Wuning looked over expressionlessly, unsure whether he should first refute the “fierce-looking big brother” part or thank him for the compliment.
Lu Bai took a deep breath, holding out her left arm. A nearby operative helped her carefully remove the strange glove. There was a crack-like fissure in her palm. Her expression grew even more serious. “I’ll do my best.”
She knelt at the sea’s edge, placing her bare palm into the water.
He Wuning didn’t know her or what kind of ability she had awakened, but from her appearance alone, he could guess—terrible physical conditions had gifted her with a frightening power.
He tightened his grip on his blade and did not relax his guard.
A tremendous suction burst from the girl’s palm—like a massive industrial pump installed on the shore. In an instant, a huge whirlpool formed near the coastline.
The seaweed king was caught in it, thrashing as parts of its body were ripped away. It seemed to sense danger at last. Countless Poison-Sting Seaweed strands were sucked into the vortex, and its HP steadily dropped.
It tried to pull out its tentacles to resist, but several operatives were already guarding Lu Bai. They had long anticipated the creature’s death throes and blocked every attack from reaching the girl.
The pale girl knelt by the sea, her small palm pressed into the water, her tiny face nearly devout.
He Wuning stared for a moment. It seemed that everything Lu Bai’s hands touched was being absorbed—not just the seaweed king’s body, but an enormous amount of seawater as well.
As the volume of seawater and Poison-Sting Seaweed being sucked in increased, a strained expression of pain twisted Lu Bai’s face. Yi Luo frowned and signaled to the people beside her: “That’s enough.”
The operative clearly respected Yi Luo as well; he immediately stepped forward and cut off the stream of seaweed still being pulled in. Lu Bai’s hands instantly clenched into fists, and another operative quickly slipped the special gloves back onto her.
Only once the gloves were on did Lu Bai finally relax. She couldn’t suppress the retching sound rising from her throat. Xue Xun immediately held out a black plastic bag, and Lu Bai buried her head in it almost instantly, gagging.
But she didn’t vomit much. A healer in treatment-center uniform stepped forward to check her condition, her expression grave. “Mild poisoning.”
A faint green light glowed from the healer’s palm; Lu Bai’s tightly drawn expression eased a little. She wiped her mouth, smiling weakly. “Thank you, I feel a lot better.”
The healer shook her head slowly. “I can remove the poisoning, and I can ease your pain, but…”
Her expression grew pained. “Pain is the body’s warning. This ability of yours definitely comes with side effects. If you stop feeling the pain and keep pushing yourself…”
She took a deep breath. “But I can help.”
She stepped back into position, wearing a maturity her age shouldn’t have. “I’ve been a burden to everyone since the day I was born. Maybe only in this game can I actually be useful like this.”
“It’s fine. If it really starts hurting too much, I’ll stop.”
Xue Xun lowered his gaze. He knew she hadn’t really vomited anything just now. The aftereffect of her ability was a sensation of fullness—yet she wasn’t actually digesting the things she absorbed. All she could throw up was whatever she had eaten beforehand.
If this continued, of course, it wouldn’t be good for her body.
Xue Xun couldn’t help but sigh.
He Wuning scowled, clearly displeased. “This is your so-called targeted special-operations combatant?”
Now he understood why Yi Luo had always pushed himself so hard in the special operations unit. If teammates were all like this, who wouldn’t push themselves?
What—was he supposed to hide behind them and make a group of sickly kids take hits for him?
Xue Xun forced a wry smile. “Well…”
But He Wuning had already turned and walked deeper onto the stone bridge. “Hey! Brother He, you’re going—” Xue Xun called out.
He Wuning didn’t look back. “There are still two more. Can't rely entirely on her, right?”
Xue Xun opened his mouth, but Yi Luo was already following. The milk tea boat drifted along the bridge’s edge, and He Wuning jumped down lightly onto it.
“Hey—!”
A voice called out from the direction of Ghost Island. Both men looked up. Lin Shuangshi, with five combatants behind him, had hacked their way through the tentacles of the two seaweed kings still clinging to the bridge. Out of breath, he ran toward them.
Lin Shuangshi looked ready to scold them, but Yi Luo pointed behind him. “Come help lighten Xiao Bai’s load. Coming or not?”
Lin Shuangshi froze, turning his gaze toward the pale girl by the shoreline. Anger flickered across his face. “Who brought her here! It’s not like we can’t fight!”
“What’s the point of yelling?” Yi Luo drawled lazily. “You coming or not?”
Lin Shuangshi’s face flushed red, and without another word, he jumped aboard. The boat, once again packed with combatants like before, turned toward the remaining seaweed kings.
He Wuning hefted his blade and looked at the two seaweed kings, obsessed with tearing down the bridge. He rubbed his chin. “Tell me—do these seaweed kings really have no weak points?”
“Hm?” Yi Luo glanced at him in surprise. “Wasn’t anything written in your data sheet?”
“But this game has hidden mechanics.” He Wuning tapped the window lightly. “For example, the minotaur shield you discovered—it’s extremely effective against minotaur attacks, but nowhere on the shield does it say that.”
He Wuning narrowed his eyes. “They made monsters this troublesome… You think they wouldn’t include a simpler way to kill them?”
Yi Luo raised an eyebrow. “And what are you thinking of doing?”
He Wuning smiled. He rarely smiled, and the suddenness of it made Yi Luo’s hair stand on end. He WUning pointed at the giant seaweed sphere. “Go inside and take a look.”
Even Yi Luo was momentarily confused. “Inside where?”
He Wuning pointed at the center of the seaweed sphere. “There. I’m really curious—at the monster’s core, with all that seaweed piled on top… what’s hidden inside?”
Yi Luo froze for a moment. True, most people kept their distance when fighting the Seaweed King, slowly chipping away at it. Troublesome, maybe, but safer.
Perhaps no one had ever seen what the Seaweed King looked like on the inside.
With He Wuning bringing it up, Yi Luo’s urge to do something reckless began to stir again.
They both turned to look at Lin Shuangshi and his teammates. Yi Luo showed a regretful expression. “Sorry, I just tricked you onto this pirate ship, and now I have to ask you to get off again.”
Lin Shuangshi: “?”
Yi Luo smiled. “I’ll drop you off right there on that stone bridge. You guys just stand on the bridge and focus on outputting damage.”
A bad feeling crawled up Lin Shuangshi’s spine. “Then what about you two? What are you planning to do?”
He had only vaguely heard them say something about “going in,” but on this endless stretch of ocean, where could they possibly go?
The back hatch opened. Yi Luo didn’t intend to explain. “Get out. You’ll see.”
Lin Shuangshi wanted to ask more, but Yi Luo added, “If you keep dawdling, Xiao Bai will have to drink even more stinky seawater soaked in seaweed.”
Lin Shuangshi choked on his words. In the end, he could only angrily jump out and, together with Team Five’s combat members, stand on the cross-bridge and coldly watch to see what they were going to do.
They did nothing.
The milk tea boat charged straight toward the Seaweed King and then stopped in front of it. Without struggling in the slightest, the entire boat was swallowed into the Seaweed King’s body.
Lin Shuangshi stared, helpless, as that little patch of pink was slowly submerged, eventually disappearing into the dark mass of seaweed.
His eyes widened, terror surfacing. He couldn’t help but panic. “Wait—are those two actually going to get themselves killed?!”
He immediately rolled up his sleeves to jump into the water, but the teammates beside him grabbed him in a frantic tangle of arms.
“Captain, calm down!”
“Captain, don’t be impulsive!”
“It’s fine~” A far-too-cheerful voice sounded behind them. Lin Shuangshi turned around to see the round pink system holding a stack of milk teas. With great confidence, it said, “How could my sweeties possibly go to their deaths? They’ll only be sending other monsters to their deaths!”
It held up the milk teas warmly. “Need to refresh your buffs? You can buy now and pay later! Just settle the bill after the fight!”
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The author has something to say:
Seaweed King Fun Facts:
He Wuning and Yi Luo can only eat it once in their entire lives.
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