Inside the Seaweed King, everything was pitch-black. Layers upon layers of seaweed covered the milk tea boat’s windows. Yi Luo examined the surroundings with interest. “I’ve always wondered—being dragged in by seaweed like this is dangerous, sure, but at most you’d suffocate. How does it actually digest anything?”
He Wuning lifted his eyes slightly. “You care about how a monster digests?”
“tsk.” Yi Luo shook his head. “How do you have zero curiosity, kid?”
“Were you the type who, as a child, asked ‘one hundred thousand whys,’ while you turned into ‘one hundred thousand none-of-your-business’?”
He Wuning: “…”
He stared expressionlessly at the pitch-black mass of shifting seaweed ahead. It seemed they were being taken deeper inside—but that might just be an illusion. They might not have been moving at all.
Yi Luo tried to spot something, but they were already surrounded by dense, packed seaweed. Even with his sharp vision, he didn’t have x-ray sight.
In darkness where the view was blocked, who could say what hidden danger lurked nearby?
Yi Luo glanced around. He was about to ask He Wuning: “Did you notice—”
“Shh.” He Wuning slowly shook his head, signaling him to stay quiet. Eyes closed, brows tightly furrowed, he seemed to be listening intently to something.
Yi Luo patiently waited for his discovery.
He Wuning asked, “Do you hear anything?”
Yi Luo raised a brow. “What?”
He Wuning opened his eyes, hesitant. “It sounds like… a heartbeat.”
A hundred square meters of Poison-Sting Seaweed would give birth to a Seaweed King. This field boss’s spawn mechanism was unlike other monsters. He Wuning had always been curious—when the seaweed covered exactly one hundred square meters, what transformation occurred?
For example, would something like a Seaweed Heart form, allowing the entire hundred-square-meter seaweed patch to become the Seaweed King’s body?
He Wuning lowered his gaze. Yi Luo cleared his throat seriously. “Let me make something clear.”
“Even though it’s just the two of us right now, and your annoying little system finally isn’t around, my heart is not beating so loudly that you could hear it.”
He Wuning stared at him silently, unable to determine whether he was truly an idiot or just making a very unfunny joke.
Yi Luo blinked. “Not funny?”
He Wuning closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them again, he ignored the interruption and looked at the surrounding seaweed with a blank expression. “A hundred square meters of Poison-Sting Seaweed can give birth to a Seaweed King. There must be a core difference between the two.”
“It can’t just be a bunch of seaweed tangled together.”
Once he got serious, Yi Luo had no choice but to put away his usual playful attitude. He nodded. “Yeah, logically that makes sense.”
“And from Poison-Sting Seaweed to Seaweed King… doesn’t that feel like going from plant to animal?”
Following He Wuning’s line of thought, he continued, “So you suspect that deep within this giant seaweed sphere, there’s something crucial that marks that transformation—something like nerves, organs, biological structures…”
“That would be its weak point.”
He Wuning nodded and chuckled softly. “It’s kind of funny that in a bizarre game like this, we’re trying to solve problems using scientific reasoning.”
“Science is always helpful,” Yi Luo said with a grin, pointing upward. “At least science can make railguns.”
But right now, the milk tea boat was completely wrapped in seaweed; the railgun on top couldn’t be accessed. Their science was temporarily sealed away.
Yi Luo asked with interest, “So, want to make a move?”
He Wuning looked at the milk tea car. “Do we have any weapons we can still use?”
If not, they’d have to crack open a window and clear out a space before they could fight.
“The seaweed’s wrapped us tight. Using the anti-air machine gun now would probably blow the barrel.” Yi Luo’s eyes curved with a smile. “But hey, a burst barrel is still an attack. Should we make it blow once? Twice?”
He Wuning nodded with restraint. “Once.”
“There’s still another Seaweed King outside. Save one weapon.”
Yi Luo swiftly pressed a button. As expected, the anti-air machine gun gave a muffled bang and heroically blew its own barrel. Yi Luo immediately stomped the brakes. The milk tea boat jolted with a loud “KLANG,” and the seaweed in front was forcefully blasted aside from the impact, revealing an open space.
—There was a heart ahead.
A heart that looked unhealthy at first glance, its color a bruised blackish-green. At its edges, seaweed-like strands resembling nerves were attached, pulsing powerfully.
Yi Luo let out a soft whistle, and the remaining anti-air machine gun spat out a stream of bullets that sank straight into the heart.
The Poison-Sting Seaweed rushed together silently, densely layering over the heart in an attempt to cover the wounds, but decay spread outward from the center.
The bluish-black seaweed rapidly shriveled and withered, as if deprived of all nutrients, turning into brittle, sun-dried strips that flaked away like crumbling wall plaster.
The massive seaweed sphere began to collapse from within. The black seaweed ball split open, cracks letting in light that pierced through like a sudden break in storm clouds.
The two stayed in the ruined darkness for a moment, squinting as their eyes adjusted. Without paying attention to the loot falling around them, Yi Luo chuckled. “So what is this? Bold hypothesis, careful verification?”
He Wuning glanced at him. “Bold hypothesis, bold verification.”
Yi Luo nodded, concluding, “Either way, it’s the power of science.”
The milk tea boat dropped from mid-air as if weightless, splashing hard into the sea. It rocked violently but eventually stabilized.
“Find the next one.”
He Wuning lifted his chin. Yi Luo acknowledged the cue, and the pink milk tea boat moved forward. Black-green dried seaweed fragments slid off the hull in heaps, scattering into the wind.
Xue Xun dumbly picked up a fragment, rubbing it between his fingers. It felt like a plant dried until not a drop of moisture remained—it turned to powder with a pinch.
He muttered, unable to help himself, “What exactly is going on in those two people’s heads?”
The pink milk tea boat repeated its earlier maneuver, drifting stylishly to a stop in front of the last Seaweed King. This unsuspecting field boss, knowing nothing about human players’ wicked hearts, sent its wet tentacles forward to wrap the boat and deliver it to its core.
Though he didn’t know exactly what they were doing in there, sympathy was already visible in Xue Xun’s eyes.
“It’s going to explode soon too.”
Lu Bai had just finished dealing with the Seaweed King dragged to the nearshore. She had vomited so much her throat throbbed painfully. She lifted her head with difficulty, wiping away the reflexive tears in her eyes. “I—I can still—”
“No.” Xue Xun patted her shoulder. “That’s enough.”
He raised his hand, and right then, the Seaweed King in the distance blew open with a huge blast.
They looked far more practiced this time. Smoke drifted from the machine gun mounted on the milk tea boat. The pink vessel dropped neatly from mid-air, splashing into the sea, then lazily swam back toward the nearshore.
Yi Luo even casually collected all the drops along the way.
Lu Bai stood frozen. She always knew her “Brother Yi” was strong, but it felt like after leaving the Special Operations Unit… he had become even stronger?
She blinked slowly. “Is that Brother Yi’s partner?”
Hesitating with a bit of confusion, she asked, “But… wasn’t I supposed to be the specially targeted combatant for this monster?”
Why did those two make killing it look easier than she did?
“Yeah.” Xue Xun’s gaze grew complicated. He looked at the approaching milk tea boat, then chose not to bother with them for the moment as he hurried to give the girl some psychological counseling. “You are the targeted specialist—but don’t put too much pressure on yourself. We’ve got other strong people.”
“If you’re not in good condition, if you need a break, speak up.”
He advised earnestly, “Don’t be like your Uncle Bai and force yourself through it, ending up in the hospital for half a year.”
Bai Yan’s publicly announced ‘work suspension’ reason was officially due to physical issues, with no mention of his psychological state—but clearly because of him, command had begun paying special attention to the mental health of combatants, especially those from Special Operations.
Lu Bai nodded vaguely. With help from the nearby team members, she put on her gloves again. Uneasily, she asked, “But… I was still helpful, right?”
“Of course.” Xue Xun patted her head. Yi Luo jumped off the milk tea boat at that moment and smoothly continued the sentence, “And if you avoid pushing yourself too hard and eat a little less, that’d be even better.”
He reached out and tapped the girl’s forehead. “Doesn’t eating small amounts multiple times work better for you? Why were you forcing it?”
Lu Bai actually seemed more used to his somewhat rude familiarity, breaking into a bright smile and chuckling shyly twice. “It’s fine! Seaweed isn’t that bad, really. Way better than eating rainforest bugs…”
As she chatted with Yi Luo, she kept sneaking glances at He Wuning.
Yi Luo reached out and tugged He Wuning over. “What kind of miserable life have you been living? Eating either bugs or seaweed. Come on, come on—let this fierce-looking big brother treat you to some milk tea.”
He Wuning shot him a glance but didn’t refuse. Q-chan cooperatively presented the menu. “What do you want to drink? Order anything you like!”
He Wuning was, for once, very patient. “Give her the rest of the menu too.”
He was already level 23 now, with nearly twenty types of milk tea unlocked. But many of the later ones only unlocked the drink without any special bonus effects.
Still, if the goal was simply to comfort the girl and let her taste something sweet, special effects didn’t matter.
Because he was being so cooperative, Yi Luo became displeased instead. He hooked an arm around He Wuning’s shoulders, speaking sourly: “Ohhh—so nice, aren’t we, fierce big brother? Then, when I said I wanted watermelon juice back then, why didn’t you make it for me?”
He Wuning lifted his eyelids lazily. “Didn’t feel like it.”
Just moments ago the two had worked beautifully together to send the Seaweed King back to its ancestors, and now they looked about ready to fight.
Xue Xun looked at the pair, half exasperated and half amused. “Are you two done? Children.”
“But seriously—what did you even do in there? How did that Seaweed King just explode all of a sudden…?”
He Wuning summarized simply, “We blew up its heart.”
“My heart almost blew up too,” Xue Xun wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and glanced at the shriveled seaweed still floating on the surface. “Even knowing its weak point is the internal heart… normal people couldn’t pull that off.”
“Once you get dragged inside the seaweed, you’re basically dead.”
Yi Luo rubbed his chin. “Such narrow thinking, Director Xue. Didn’t we tell you? Use the power of science. Next time we’ll just feed it a time bomb.”
Xue Xun: “…”
What could he say? He couldn’t even refute it… and that only made it more frustrating.
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The author has something to say:
Yi Luo: Believe in science—science can build railguns.
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