Mutual Redemption with the Villainous Boss [Infinite] - Chapter 10

After stammering for a long while, Tana couldn’t manage to get another word out. Frustrated, she buried her face in Zhu Ci’s embrace and rubbed against her forcefully.

Zhu Ci gently patted her back.

Noticing that the commotion on the fourth floor seemed to have subsided, Tana emerged, the flush still lingering on her face. She said, “Go back now. They went down from the left; if you take the right staircase, you won’t run into them.”

Zhu Ci nodded, gave her a thin smile, and went upstairs wrapped in her blanket.

Tana watched her figure depart from behind before vanishing into the darkness.

The next morning, the players gathered in the restaurant on the second floor. Two people were missing now; including the NPCs, there were only 17 people left.

Breakfast was already laid out on the table, steam rising from the food as if it had appeared out of thin air, yet there was no sign of a chef.

Xiao Die’s mood was much better than the previous night. Her spirit had recovered somewhat; she was no longer crying, though her eyes remained red.

Surprisingly, He Fanghui was not there. Yu Jiayi simply stated that she was still in a state of unconsciousness.

An NPC named Evelyn spoke up: “What should we do today? Do we need to vote someone out?”

Generally, NPCs do not interfere in matters between players; they only follow the scripted plot and issue tasks. Clearly, an NPC like Evelyn existed to push the plot forward.

A young man around twenty years old, with a clean-cut face and a habitually silent demeanor, spoke up: “How about this: we split up to look for clues first to see if there are any leads. We’ll come back and discuss it together at dinner.”

Yu Jiayi agreed, but she said she had to look after He Fanghui and might not be able to leave the room, so she would be responsible for consolidating the information today.

The players had no objections. After finishing breakfast, they paired off in twos or threes to go out and investigate.

The NPCs naturally went as well. Zhu Ci casually ate a few buns and turned to call Tana to join her, but Tana was already nowhere to be found.

Shrugging her shoulders, she had no choice but to search on her own.

Zhu Ci decided to search from the bottom up. She went to the deck on the first floor. During the day, the seawater was calm, and a few dolphins frolicked around the ship, making “da-da” laughing sounds as they played in the water, leaping out of the surface and diving back in.

The damp water stains on the deck had already dried, and it creaked as she walked over it. She was wearing the clothes she had arrived in; they had dried after the events of last night. She wore a slightly loose jacket paired with shorts and a pair of sneakers, which were convenient for movement.

The deck was empty at a glance, save for a few stacked empty crates.

Zhu Ci circled the area, then stomped her foot firmly on each wooden plank, tapping a few times to see if there were any hollow spots.

“Stop stomping. This ship has some years on it; if you step through it and the ship starts taking on water, it won’t be good.”

That silent man was holding a circular disc, watching her from the second-floor window with a frown.

She looked up and said, “It won’t leak. There’s definitely space underneath here.”

“Do you know how big this hull is? If you step through and fall, we’ll be down another person,” the man said in a calm tone, offering a warning.

She hadn’t expected a player to care about an NPC.

“My name is Palos. And yours?”

Perhaps surprised that an NPC would strike up a conversation, he leaned on the windowsill and replied, “Chen Jian.”

Zhu Ci continued to stomp around left and right, her questions not stopping: “What’s that in your hand?”

“This… why do you care? You wouldn’t understand even if I told you.” He gave a light snort, then went back to looking at the disc in his hand, ignoring her.

“Just curious. After all, you were the one who suggested looking for clues, yet you’re still staying in your room… Ah!”

Before she could finish her sentence, her foot hit empty air. A large section of the wooden planking snapped, and she fell through before she could react.

Careless.

Zhu Ci lay on the ground, staring at the shrinking hole in the ceiling, grumbling inwardly.

The bottom of this ship was indeed massive. She had fallen at least three or four meters, but she had hit several objects on the way down, which acted as a buffer and prevented her from falling to her death.

However, her back hurt so much she couldn’t get up.

After a short while, Chen Jian’s face appeared at the hole.

“Are you still alive?”

“Not dead yet, just temporarily unable to move.”

“Just wait there,” Chen Jian said, speechless—he had told her not to stomp around. “I’ll go find a rope and come back to save you.”

The shadow at the opening moved away; Chen Jian had presumably left. Zhu Ci felt her body go numb, so she opened the Mall, exchanged for a bottle of Simple Trauma Medicine, and swallowed it.

The pain in her back lessened instantly. She rubbed her back and slowly crawled into a sitting position.

What had buffered her just now was a pile of long-discarded junk; parts of the wood had already rotted and crumbled at a touch.

Zhu Ci surveyed her surroundings. The bottom of the ship was a huge space. A heavy smell of mold flooded her nostrils, stirring up unpleasant memories.

She walked around but felt that this space was less than one-fifth the size of the ship. The other side seemed to be partitioned off by a wall, making it impassable.

She lightly stroked the wall.

Seeing no place to pass through, she summoned her watermelon knife and struck it hard.

The wall was seamless; the knife hit the surface and couldn’t penetrate it at all.

Chen Jian’s voice came from the hole above: “I’ve lowered the rope. Hurry up and tie the other end to yourself, and I’ll pull you up.”

“Don’t be in a rush. You come down first,” Zhu Ci shouted to him.

“Did you find something?” Chen Jian shouted into the hole. He hadn’t been able to find a rope earlier and had bought one from the Mall on the spot, but the person inside was nowhere to be seen. He waited for a long time without receiving a reply.

If some accident had happened… Grititng his teeth, he decided to go down and see.

Rustling sounds echoed behind Zhu Ci. She turned around to see Chen Jian slowly climbing down the rope.

However, it was obvious he had never done this before; he was fumbling and moving incredibly slowly.

Finally reaching the end of the rope, he reached out a foot to test the ground before jumping down and clapping his hands.

“Why didn’t you answer me? What did you find?” Chen Jian covered his nose; the dust here was too thick and suffocating.

Zhu Ci told him to come over and said, “There’s definitely a path here. Help me look for it.”

Chen Jian looked around, took out the circular disc, and held it in his hands to study it for a long while. She leaned over to catch a glimpse.

There were many incomprehensible characters on the disc, along with a very long needle that was constantly shaking.

Finally, Chen Jian shifted his gaze from the disc and felt along the left side of the wall. At a slightly elevated point, he pressed inward.

There was a stony sound, like the roar of a growling beast. The wall in front of them shifted to the side, opening a small crack just wide enough for one person to pass through.

Chen Jian looked at the compass: “No wonder the compass was always inaccurate; it was being blocked under these wooden boards.”

Zhu Ci went in first to scout the way. Inside was a narrow, long corridor with many intersecting paths. The walls were no longer stone but finished plastic partitions. They were hollow inside, likely housing electrical wires or something similar.

Chen Jian followed behind, walking while looking at the compass and even directing her on which way to go.

Before they had gone far, they arrived in front of a door.

To the right of the door was an induction area that seemed to require a keycard. The material of this door was very sturdy, likely designed for anti-theft; it probably wouldn’t even open if shot with a gun.

For a moment, neither of them knew what to do.

Then, Chen Jian fiddled in the air for a bit, and a laptop computer appeared out of nowhere in his hands.

Zhu Ci was stunned. She hadn’t expected this person to have enough points to exchange for a computer—that would require at least 1,000 points, which was impossible in a beginner dungeon. “How did you get that?”

Chen Jian, firmly believing she was an NPC, assumed she was simply confused about how he had pulled it out of thin air, so he didn’t offer much explanation: “Like I said, you wouldn’t understand even if I told you.”

He plugged the computer into the induction device and began to rewrite the code.

His hands moved with lightning speed, so Zhu Ci crouched to the side and waited.

About an hour passed before the lock’s induction device made a “di-di-di” sound, and the sturdy door opened with a click.

Chen Jian shrank back a bit: “You go in first.”

Zhu Ci found it strange: “Why don’t you go in first?”

“Didn’t you go in first just now?” He clutched the compass to his chest. “I don’t have a single defensive weapon, and you were fine after falling from that height earlier. You’re much tougher than me.”

Now it was Zhu Ci’s turn to be speechless.

She stepped directly inside and did a quick scan. This place seemed to be a control room; there wasn’t a soul inside.

Only then did Chen Jian follow her in with relief.

The console here seemed capable of controlling the ship’s direction, but since it wasn’t the main bridge, there was no intercom to communicate with the outside world, nor could they refuel or drop anchor.

There was also a small side room. Opening it revealed many screens arranged there, showing various corners of the ship—apparently, this was the surveillance room.

Zhu Ci searched the screens for a while but did not see Tana.

Perhaps she just happened to be in a blind spot.

However, she did spot Xiao Die.

Xiao Die was with the girl who had taken her in the previous night. The two of them were walking close together through the third-floor corridor.

Zhu Ci knew this person was very suspicious, so she watched for a bit longer to observe her.

The speaking voices of the two were too low to be captured by the surveillance, but it seemed Xiao Die said something to the girl, and then they crossed the corridor and headed in another direction.

There shouldn’t be any problems for the time being.

Zhu Ci stared for another two minutes to confirm everything was fine before leaving the surveillance room.

Chen Jian found an interface on the console, connected it to his computer, and began typing code frantically again.

Zhu Ci said, “The main control room might be with Isaac; it should be on the fifth floor.”

After all, the first to fourth floors could be entered and exited freely, while only the fifth floor was locked.

“Maybe, but it doesn’t matter. I’ll export the data first and then analyze it.”

Chen Jian replied without looking up from his keyboard.

It would be another wait. Thinking this, Zhu Ci wanted to go out and see where the other paths led.

The paths outside were winding; according to this arrangement, it was likely an information network-like existence, complex and convoluted specifically to keep outsiders out.

Besides this control console, there must be something else.

Two piercing screams rang out from the surveillance room.

The two exchanged a glance and rushed into the room.

On the screen, Xiao Die and the other girl were slumped on the floor of the corridor, clutching each other. In front of them was their companion, a long rope tied around their neck and fastened to the fourth-floor railing. The person hung before them like a weightless leaf.

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