Apocalypse Mode: My Cheat Code Virtual Boyfriend - Chapter 26

This was the first time Bai Yu had been entrusted with such an important task, and it would be a lie to say she wasn’t nervous.

She put on her diving suit, and her initial vertical descent was as awkward as her brother’s had been, though she felt much better once she was in the water.

In truth, Lu Jiaoshuang could have gone alone, but since only someone wearing a diving suit could pick up trash, and she transformed into a mermaid upon contact with water, it was better for her to follow Bai Yu as a bodyguard.

The two of them vanished beneath the sea’s surface. The ship remained anchored, waiting for their return in a few hours before setting sail again.

There wasn’t much to do on the Ark. After watering the planting boxes on the deck’s lower level, Bai Xun found himself with nothing to occupy his time.

Although the temperature had grown somewhat chilly, it didn’t stop Bai Xun from dragging out a wool blanket to bask in the sun and doze off on the small second-floor balcony. This, he thought, was truly enjoying life.

The sun warmed the wool blanket, making it cozy and pleasant to drape over his legs.

He had barely dozed for an hour when the Ark suddenly began to rock violently.

Bai Xun snapped his eyes open. The last time it had been this turbulent was during the storm in the combined ship. Now, with the sun shining brightly, only one possibility remained.

They were under attack, again.

Yet, the alarm for mutated marine creature attacks hadn’t sounded.

Standing on the second floor, Bai Xun had a clear view. As soon as he rose, he saw a massive whale outside the Ark’s railing, its partially exposed body repeatedly scraping against the electrified netting attached to the railing.

The electric current seemed to be nothing more than an itch-scratcher for the giant whale. Its moist skin conducted electricity, but to no effect.

It showed no intention of capsizing the ship. Instead, with what was, for a whale, a gentle force, it shifted directions, giving itself a full-body scratch against the Ark.

For those on board, however, it was anything but gentle. Bai Xun clung to the railing, swaying left and right as the whale’s back, like a towering gray-blue wall, pressed against the Ark, dwarfing it by more than ten times in size.

Bai Xun had never considered himself to have megalophobia, but the sight of such an enormous whale sent a tremor from the depths of his soul, seizing control of him. His body trembled involuntarily, and even his breath felt stolen away.

The whale’s scraping against the Ark left no damage to its skin, not even a single clear scratch.

Just as Bai Xun managed to steady himself and sprint toward the lower-level control room, the Ark’s violent rocking abruptly ceased.

The whale had stopped scraping against the netting.

Bai Xun ran as if his life depended on it, skidding to a halt and nearly colliding headfirst into Cheng Wei, who was coming up from the lower level.

Cheng Wei quickly reached out to steady him, preventing both of them from tumbling backward.

Bai Xun looked up at Cheng Wei. “What happened? Did the whale leave?”

Cheng Wei shook his head. “It’s still following us.”

The whale raised its body slightly, its eye, as large as a giant floating buoy, peering through the railing to observe the Ark’s deck, as if searching for anyone on board.

Bai Xun continued his dash to the control room. Though the chances were slim, he wanted to try steering the Ark away from the whale’s range.

He hoped the whale wasn’t actively pursuing them.

Switching to manual control, he turned the ship sharply to the left, speeding away from the whale’s location.

Any direction would do, the important thing was to avoid the whale.

Lu Jiaoshuang and Bai Yu hadn’t returned yet. The control panel displayed the location markers of their diving suits, showing approximately how many kilometers they were from the Ark.

The diving suits also had an automatic navigation system, so there was no need to worry about them losing their way back to the Ark.

Still, to be safe, Bai Xun dialed Bai Yu’s diving helmet while steering the ship: “Hey, can you hear me?”

Bai Yu was dozens of kilometers away: “I can hear you. So this helmet has a communication function too.”

Bai Xun kept it brief: “There’s a whale rubbing its body against the Ark. I’m going to move the ship away first. Once I shake it off, I’ll head to a coordinate point closer to you.”

Bai Yu replied: “Alright, Sister Shuangshuang and I will keep collecting trash. Contact me again if anything comes up.”

After ending the call, Bai Xun focused intently on steering the ship. The whale paused for a moment, seemingly confused about why its “back scratcher” had suddenly moved away. The next moment, it flicked its tail and followed closely.

Fighting it was definitely out of the question, and now even outrunning it seemed impossible.

Bai Xun felt a headache coming on. He simply stopped the Ark to see what this whale actually wanted.

Ever since the whale started rubbing against the ship, everyone had returned indoors. Of course, Bai Xun didn’t attempt to put himself in danger. Instead, he activated the Ark’s broadcast system.

Holding the intercom, he tried to communicate with the whale: “Hello, can you understand human speech? Why are you following us?”

As soon as he said it, even he felt a bit silly, he was actually trying to talk to a whale.

The whale immediately responded with a long, drawn-out whale song, like a call from ancient times, sweeping past everyone’s ears like the wind, mysterious and ethereal.

Then, a lively voice echoed in their ears: “I understand! So there are people on the ship. That’s great! I was rubbing against barnacles. Can you help clean the barnacles off my body? They’re stuck to my back, and it’s really uncomfortable.”

Bai Xun’s grip on the intercom tightened and loosened repeatedly. Finally, with mixed emotions, he replied to the whale: “Sure…”

No wonder the marine mutant creature attack alarm hadn’t gone off. This whale really did see them as a back scratcher, it just wanted to come over for a back-cleaning SPA.

The whale continued: “You’ll need some sharp shells or pointed teeth. They’re firmly attached to my body, and lately, they’ve been growing more and more. I feel really uncomfortable.”

Bai Xun left the control room and went to the tool room to fetch two shovels. He also grabbed a meat fork from the kitchen simulator to check the condition of the barnacles on the whale’s back.

After being exposed to the mutated rainwater, animals speaking wasn’t anything strange. On the first day of the apocalypse, the giant snake that tried to trick them into opening the door could also talk, so a whale speaking wasn’t all that surprising.

Before going upstairs, he turned off the electric grid to avoid accidental contact and removed the netting to prevent it from hindering movement. The whale obediently leaned against the side of the ship, waiting for them to come down and help.

Bai Xun dug out the life jackets they had purchased earlier and put one on himself, handing another to Cheng Wei, who was going out with him. Would they need to get into the water to clean the barnacles off the whale?

He walked onto the deck, and the whale’s voice chimed in cheerfully: “I’m here, I’m here! How are you coming down? Do you want to stand on my back? I can sink down a bit.”

This whale was truly enormous, far exceeding the normal size of a whale. The ark was probably only as big as one of its fins.

Bai Xun said, “Not for now. Let me first see where the barnacles are growing on you.”

The whale replied, “Okay, okay! I won’t move. Come quick, come quick! There are so many barnacles, they’re everywhere.”

Before the apocalypse, whales were friendly and gentle creatures toward humans, and they even enjoyed seeking human help to clean off barnacles. After the apocalypse, although their size had increased, their temperament and habits hadn’t changed in the slightest.

Bai Xun stepped closer. Even through the railing, he could clearly see a large patch of pale, hexagonal barnacles covering the whale’s body, each nearly the size of a goose egg.

The mutated rainwater of the apocalypse hadn’t just mutated this whale; the barnacles parasitizing it had also grown larger and stronger.

Silently, Bai Xun swapped the shovel in his hand for a sharp meat cleaver.

“If you feel any pain, let me know,” he said, pulling out two pairs of rubber gloves. He handed one pair to Cheng Wei, just in case the barnacles weren’t clean.

“I know! Don’t worry, just dig them out. Once they’re gone, I won’t itch anymore,” the whale answered cheerfully.

Barnacles don’t just grow on marine creatures; they also attach to submerged parts of ships, growing densely and looking utterly unsettling at first glance.

Worried that the removed barnacles might take the opportunity to grow on the deck, Bai Xun first retrieved several large stainless steel basins from the kitchen simulator.

With everything prepared, it was time to start digging!

Bai Xun held the knife in his right hand and steadied a barnacle with his left, tentatively prying at its base with the tip of the blade.

The barnacle’s root was firmly stuck to the whale’s skin. As he applied force, he managed to loosen the root slightly, but the knife chipped with a small crack.

Hiss, this was too difficult to pry off. These mutated barnacles were like diamonds on a diamond mountain, their hardness was off the charts.

After breaking one knife, Bai Xun switched to several more, only managing to chip off a small piece of barnacle after ruining a few blades. These barnacles were so hard they could be mixed into mortar and used for building walls.

Bai Xun had gained one barnacle and several broken knives. The area covered by barnacles on the whale’s body was far larger than this. He couldn’t afford to keep taking knives from the kitchen simulator to waste, it wasn’t a bottomless pit with infinite supplies.

What else was sharp enough to uproot these barnacles completely?

Ah, got it! Bai Xun glanced down at his fingers, still wrapped in rubber gloves and tightly bandaged.

He took out several flying fish corpses from the kitchen simulator, cut off their fins, pierced holes in them, and firmly attached them to knife handles. This way, he made several sharp blades.

Holding the fish-fin knife, Bai Xun aimed at the barnacle again. Although there was still some resistance when cutting, he quickly separated its root from the whale’s skin.

“How do you feel?” he asked, a bit worried that he might have cut too deep and injured the whale’s skin, which could lead to a large-scale infection.

“Have you started? I didn’t feel anything,” the whale replied.

That meant it was safe to continue.

Reassured, Bai Xun kept cutting. With a few swift motions, he sliced off a large patch of barnacles, which clattered loudly as they fell into the large steel basin.

Once the basin was full, Bai Xun directly stored the barnacles in the kitchen simulator. Barnacles counted as ingredients, and the taste of these parasitic creatures was said to be exceptionally delicious.

They would never consider eating mutated animals unless they were truly desperate and facing famine. So, Bai Xun collected these barnacles for emergencies.

Though he wasn’t sure what they could be used for, they would surely come in handy someday, the flying fish’s fins were a perfect example.

They worked for several hours. Even with the fish-fin knife, which significantly sped up their progress, they had only managed to clear a small patch on the right side of the whale’s body. It was simply too massive, making the task incredibly laborious.

The barnacles had infested the whale aggressively, even spreading to the soft skin around its eyes.

If left unchecked, the whale would soon resemble a long, pale “rose”-covered trellis.

Lu Jiaoshuang returned with Bai Yu in tow. Before even surfacing, she caught sight of the whale’s enormous form beneath the water. With a startled leap, she shot backward, her tail slapping the water as she darted several miles in the opposite direction.

Shortly after, the ship’s communication device buzzed. Bai Xun quickly dropped what he was doing to answer.

But the voice on the other end wasn’t Bai Yu’s. Instead, it was Lu Jiaoshuang’s, sounding panicked and frantic: “Holy crap, the whale is still there! You guys haven’t been eaten, have you?”