Apocalypse Mode: My Cheat Code Virtual Boyfriend - Chapter 27

Bai Xun’s ears were ringing from the noise. “We’re fine, just scraping barnacles off this whale. Aren’t you wearing a diving helmet? Where’s Bai Yu?”

Bai Yu’s weak voice came through. “Brother, I’m here. Sister Shuangshuang yelled right against my helmet, I’m almost deaf.”

Bai Xun spared a moment of sympathy for his sister. “Hurry back. Everything’s fine here. I’m hanging up now.”

After ending the call, Bai Xun went out to the diving platform and lowered the rope ladder. He also asked the whale to move aside a bit, it was too close to the boat for Bai Yu and the others to climb aboard.

Bai Yu and Lu Jiaoshuang surfaced one after the other. The whale let out a long cry, causing Bai Yu to slip and nearly crash onto Lu Jiaoshuang’s head.

After its call, the whale exclaimed enthusiastically, “New people! Hello, new people!”

Bai Yu, who had almost stepped on Lu Jiaoshuang’s head: “…”

Lu Jiaoshuang: “Haha, hello.”

Bai Xun leaned over. “Everyone here?”

Bai Yu: “We’re here, we’re here!”

The whale mimicked Bai Yu: “People here! People here!”

After climbing aboard, they examined the whale closely. Lu Jiaoshuang leaned in and whispered to Bai Yu, “This whale reminds me a bit of you.”

Both had a certain air of naive sweetness.

The naive sweetheart herself, Bai Yu: “Huh?”

The barnacles on the whale couldn’t be cleared all at once. They worked from noon until evening, managing to remove only about one-sixth of them. After hours of labor, their backs and shoulders ached.

Bai Xun asked the whale to return the next day, they were simply too exhausted.

The whale cheered, inquired about their sailing direction, then slapped its tail and swam into the deep sea to hunt.

Hours later, it returned and pressed itself tightly against the side of the Ark, standing guard like a steadfast bodyguard.

With the whale present, other marine creatures kept their distance, greatly increasing the Ark’s safety.

Once they had gathered enough materials, they successfully built the glass greenhouse and moved the planting boxes from the lower deck back to the main deck.

With more hands available, the barnacle-clearing work could proceed faster. The original two-person team expanded to four, significantly improving efficiency.

It took them two days to clear the barnacles exposed above the waterline. The larger area of barnacles, however, was underwater.

Clearing the underwater portion proved more troublesome.

Apart from Lu Jiaoshuang, who could directly use a fin knife to scrape them off while diving, everyone else had to wear diving suits.

The barnacles exposed above the waterline could be pecked at by seabirds, so their numbers weren’t as dense.

When Bai Xun put on his diving suit and swam beneath the whale’s belly, he found the barnacles there packed as tightly as a dense, white skeletal armor.

The fin knife was no longer sufficient, this patch of barnacles required a hoe.

The underwater barnacle removal work was forced to slow down.

Bai Xun felt unsure where to start, afraid that cutting too deep might slice a large wound into the whale’s skin.

The barnacles on the whale’s fins completely covered the entire surface, resembling a barnacle farm.

By the time they finished clearing all the barnacles, it was the forty-fifth day of the apocalypse. It was hard to believe they had spent nearly nine days cleaning barnacles from just one whale.

The removed barnacles weighed a staggering three tons. Without the kitchen simulator, they would never have been able to collect them all.

During these nine days, they also harvested a batch of vegetables, cabbage, corn, strawberries, and more, each one plump and full, the finest quality of mature produce.

That evening, everyone enjoyed strawberry milkshakes and fragrant roasted corn on the cob.

After cleaning the barnacles, the whale did not leave. It clung tightly to their ark, following them wherever they went, like a giant, self-sufficient tag-along.

Not only that, but it also enthusiastically invited them to ride on its back.

Bai Xun asked, “How do we ride?”

The whale replied, “Stop your boat and you’ll find out!”

Bai Xun was puzzled but canceled the autopilot.

The next moment, the whale swam directly beneath the ark, lifted it onto its back, and sped off like a streak of lightning!

The whale-brand automatic accelerator, traveling a hundred kilometers required only 10 tons of krill, environmentally friendly and harmless!

Except for being unfriendly to krill, it was perfect in every way!

Bai Xun held onto the railing as the high-speed wind tousled everyone’s hair into mohawks. With the temperature dropping to 10 degrees Celsius, the icy gusts slapped their faces, threatening to freeze them into statues.

The whale exclaimed, “Isn’t this awesome? Do you all like it? I can go even faster!”

Bai Xun replied, “Thanks… but no need… ugh… Can you slow down a bit? It’s a little too fast… I’m getting seasick…”

The whale grew excited, “You said you could go faster! I’ll speed up!”

Bai Xun groaned, “Ugh…”

On the forty-seventh day of the apocalypse, the sun rose as usual, and the second batch of vegetables they had planted also matured. Everyone busily harvested the ripe produce.

According to the documents from the post-apocalyptic reincarnation netizen, the massive earthquake was set to occur this afternoon.

Since the netizen lived on land, there was no mention of the specific conditions in the ocean, leaving them uncertain about the extent of the earthquake’s impact on the sea.

The ark had not moved since last night, and they were still in the deep-sea region. If a tsunami occurred, staying in the deep sea would be relatively safer.

Taking advantage of the clear weather and the absence of any incidents, they quickly moved all items on the deck back into the ship’s cabin.

Then, they waterproofed and secured all supplies as much as possible, tying them down to prevent loss from the turbulence of wind and waves.

By the time they finished, it was not yet noon. Bai Xun walked onto the deck and called out to the whale that had been following them for days, “A tsunami might happen this afternoon. Should you return to the deep sea? Staying on the surface isn’t very safe.”

The whale flapped its fins, “Tsunami? You mean those annoying waves? There’s no escaping them, this entire sea area is filled with those waves. But I’m not afraid; they don’t harm me much.”

Bai Xun’s worst fear had come true: the impending tsunami would sweep across the entire region, leaving them with nowhere to escape.

The tsunami could generate waves hundreds of meters high, capable of capsizing the ark with a single surge.

However, the towering waves were not the deadliest threat. The subsequent churning and sweeping, with speeds exceeding 700 kilometers per hour, could carry the capsized ark away as swiftly as toilet paper flushed down a drain.

Could they become survivors? He wasn’t sure.

“If you’re willing, I can hide your ship in my mouth and take you away. Are you spacing out, human?” the whale continued.

Bai Xun snapped back to reality: “You mean we can hide in your mouth? Our ship is so big, is there really enough space?”

The whale said, “Let me demonstrate first.”

It swam a good distance away, then in the distance, the whale’s open mouth rose from the sea like two towering mountain peaks, jutting out of the water before snapping shut.

The whale’s mouth occupied one-third of its entire body, making swallowing an ark an effortless task.

It slapped its tail and swam back: “Yes, it’s possible. But you’ll need to remove the spiky things on the sides, they prick my mouth.”

Bai Xun couldn’t help but think of Pinocchio’s father being swallowed by a whale. He asked, “If we can really hide in your mouth to avoid the tsunami, can you bring us back to the surface immediately after it’s over?”

“Yes! I swim very fast!”

Bai Xun immediately went down to the deck’s lower level to remove the spiked railings and nets, then turned on the broadcast to let the whale try swallowing the ark into its mouth.

The whale’s usual feeding habit was to open its mouth from below its prey. Although its mouth was long enough, swallowing the ship vertically might cause it to get stuck in the middle.

As an intelligent whale with a brain, it naturally wouldn’t foolishly swallow the ship using its usual feeding method. It swam backward a short distance, then leaped up, swallowing the ark along with seawater horizontally into its mouth.

By this time, Bai Xun had already returned to the first floor. After feeling a jolt, his vision was enveloped in darkness.

With a click, he turned on the light and looked out the glass window, only to see the inner wall of the whale’s mouth.

The pinkish-white oral mucosa writhed, combined with the white baleen, creating a sight that was somewhat eerie and grotesque but, in fact, gentle and harmless.

The interior of the whale’s mouth was spacious, but as it was an enclosed space, no one knew when the oxygen would run out. Everyone put on diving helmets and held oxygen tanks, quietly waiting for the tsunami to occur and pass.

“I’m going to swim into the deep sea,” the whale communicated with them using its vocal cords while they were still in its mouth.

“Go ahead, we’re fine for now,” Bai Xun replied.

Inside the mouth of a giant whale, they couldn’t hear anything, but as the whale tilted and swam downward, they inevitably swayed in the direction the room tilted, like corn kernels in a can, all gathering toward the same direction.

They didn’t know exactly when the tsunami would occur, so they could only wait for the whale to communicate with them.

Everything inside the room was in disarray: the sofa propped up the coffee table, the TV cabinet tangled with the curtains, and scattered items piled on top of each other. The once carefully arranged cabin had now turned into a large-scale garbage dump.

The living room was still somewhat spacious, and as they swayed back and forth, they were hit by many objects.

Everyone simply groped their way back upstairs, pushing large and small items out of the rooms, leaving only soft bedding to wrap themselves in.

Bai Xun leaned against Cheng Wei, took out his phone, and stared at the screen for a while. The constant shaking and turning made him feel dizzy. Whether from dizziness or exhaustion, he closed his eyes and actually fell asleep.

When he woke up again, his head was leaning against the corner of the wall. Thanks to the diving helmet, he didn’t feel any pressure or pain. He was still tightly clutching his phone. Opening it, he saw it was 7:23 p.m.

“Is the tsunami over?” he asked Cheng Wei, who was holding him tightly in his arms.

“It’s over.” Cheng Wei released his grip. “The tsunami that started around 3 PM lasted a full three hours. The whale carried us through the underwater currents. Because we entered the deep sea, we can’t surface immediately after the tsunami ended. We’re still slowly ascending now.”

Bai Xun sat up from Cheng Wei’s body, pushed aside the blanket, felt his way along the wall to stand up, and turned on the wall lamp to look out the second-floor window.

They were still inside the whale’s mouth. The undulating oral muscles inevitably pressed against the ship’s hull and deck. Aside from this small house standing in the center of the deck, everything else had been somewhat crushed and deformed.

The interior of the house had also become a mess. It would take who knows how much effort to restore it to its original state.

But it didn’t matter anymore. What’s important is that everyone is safe.

Moreover, they already had a plan to land on solid ground, and now they could consider implementing it ahead of schedule.

Bai Xun pushed open the door and headed toward the first-floor control room. He wanted to see how far they still were from land in a straight line.