Mutual Redemption with the Villainous Boss [Infinite] - Chapter 14

After making Tana leave in a huff, Zhu Ci actually slept quite soundly. The next morning, she wasn’t late; she sat in the dining room on time to eat breakfast.

It was the third day in the game, and surprisingly, the players’ spirits remained quite good, and they were conversing happily with the remaining NPCs.

Tana sat in a corner, her eyes following Zhu Ci, but as soon as Zhu Ci looked over, she hurriedly turned her head away.

An entire night had passed, and she was still throwing a tantrum.

Zhu Ci sat down next to Tana, just about to say something, when Chen Jian arrived clutching his laptop and plopped down opposite her.

“I didn’t sleep all night; I was parsing data,” Chen Jian said, sporting two heavy dark circles under his eyes. He tapped the keyboard rapidly and then turned the laptop to face her. “Look, I connected to the main control room and obtained a wavelength.”

Zhu Ci stared at the wavelength, which rose and fell, and asked, “What is this for? I don’t understand it.”

“This is a human voice—it’s a segment of speech. It might be an important clue! I can parse it in ten minutes; just wait for me,” Chen Jian said excitedly, turning back to his computer to continue typing.

Zhu Ci had nothing to say to him. She turned back to Tana beside her; Tana didn’t speak, but her eyes were wide and bright, faintly showing a hint of expectation.

“Yesterday…”

“Hey, Miss NPC! How is the consideration going?” He Fanghui popped up from behind, giving Zhu Ci a start.

“I… you, I told you to stay away from me.” Seeing Tana turn her head away again, Zhu Ci quickly shooed him away.

Yu Jiayi followed him, standing with one hand on her hip: “How do you expect an NPC to form a team with you? Don’t be too idealistic.”

Chen Jian added while typing: “True, if it’s for teaming up in this dungeon, forget it. Palos and I have almost solved the puzzle.”

“When did I solve it?” Zhu Ci expressed her ignorance.

“This recording will solve it!” Chen Jian tapped the final key and pressed Enter.

Isaac’s voice emerged from the computer, and the players focused their attention on the group.

“Boss, the ship is two days away from approaching the vortex. We can implement the Mermaid Project. Do we need to inform the passengers in advance?”

“No need,” as soon as this thick voice spoke, Zhu Ci immediately recognized it as the person from that room. “Wait until we enter the vortex. At that time, I will leave the passenger group first.”

Everyone looked at each other; so he was the missing person.

“Understood, Boss.”

“By the way, Isaac, you still haven’t told me how you know the secret of the treasure.”

“Boss, once we obtain the treasure, I will be completely honest.”

“But I want to know now.”

“…Boss, I can only say that the sea is my mother, the mermaids are my masters, and I am merely a servant.”

The wavelength stopped abruptly. The meaning of the left-behind audio was ambiguous, but two points were clear.

First, the missing person was the figure called “Boss,” and from the snippets of conversation, Zhu Ci speculated he should be the owner of the Ocean Nereid Company.

Secondly, Isaac said he was a servant of the mermaids.

This reminded her of the words he spoke during the ceremony the first time.

“Give unto the servant the teardrops that melt into the seawater.”

When a tear drops into the sea, it becomes a part of the ocean.

Nereid means mermaid.

As the details flashed by, Zhu Ci felt she had grasped something.

She stood up abruptly, startling everyone, and then left a sentence—”Wait for me a moment”—before running out.

Yesterday, that couple had found a narrow door in the basement of the first-floor lobby.

She entered the first-floor lobby, opened the dusty basement, circled around, and saw the wooden door.

It was indeed unlocked, yet it wouldn’t budge no matter how hard one pushed.

Through the crack in the door, she saw a flashing card wedged in the middle.

Having seen what she was looking for, she hurried back. The players were all watching her.

Chen Jian asked: “Where did you go?”

“You were right, Chen Jian,” she curled her lips into a smile as bright as peach blossoms in March. “The two of us have already solved the puzzle.”

In an unnoticed spot, Xiao Die watched all of this coldly.

The sun traversed the sky and gradually sank in the west. The broadcast had just played, but the players were already all present.

Isaac stood on the viewing platform: “You are quite punctual today. So, what is the result of the vote?”

Zhu Ci stood out and looked directly at the masked figure: “It’s me.”

Ten hours ago, Zhu Ci had proposed that everyone vote for her tonight. Chen Jian was the first to object: “No, you’re crazy.”

Yu Jiayi also disagreed: “I don’t know what you’ve thought of, but this is too risky.”

Tana watched her quietly without rebutting. He Fanghui, however, was unusually excited and wanted to be voted out alongside Zhu Ci.

“I have no objection to you being voted out,” Zhu Ci gave him a sidelong glance and continued her explanation. “I believe the mermaid’s treasure must be hidden in the sea.”

“I just went to check the door you found in the basement yesterday. Its position is very deep; it indeed cannot be pushed open, and there is no handle, so pulling outward won’t work either.”

“That is because the sea is right outside that door. The water pressure is pressing against the door, making it impossible to push outward. But we can push inward from the outside. Moreover, wedged in the crack of the door is the limited-edition card for this dungeon. With it, we can leave this dungeon.”

The rope Chen Jian had bought from the mall was very useful. Previously it was used to descend into a hole; now it was used to go into the water.

One end of the rope was tied to Zhu Ci, and the other end was fastened to the ship’s railing. She said she didn’t know how to dive, much less how long she could hold her breath, but at least she could climb back up the rope if she couldn’t hold out.

The group on the ship gathered on the deck. She took a deep breath and submerged into the water.

The water pressure squeezed her eyeballs, creating a stinging ache when she opened her eyes, which eased slightly after a moment.

She swam toward the very bottom of the ship’s edge, searching for that door.

After holding her breath for a long time, just as she was about to give in, she finally touched that door crack.

Zhu Ci pushed with all her might but couldn’t open it. She grabbed the protruding edge of the ship with both hands, pressed her legs together, and kicked inward with all her strength!

The door opened. The powerful suction of the water drew her into the ship’s basement. As water poured inside, she breathed air violently, untied the rope on her body, and used her weight to brace the door shut.

The rushing water flooded the bottom of the basement. In the center lay a reflective card quietly.

She picked it up and it adhered to her sleeve.

“SR-rank Enchantment Card for ‘Mermaid’s Treasure’ Dungeon—Water-Melting Mermaid Tear.”

The light in the second row of slots lit up. She summoned the gun from that slot; the gun emitted a faint glow.

That limited-edition card had been enchanted onto this gun.

Just touching the gun gave Zhu Ci a strange feeling. She buried her face in the water accumulated in the basement and took a deep breath.

Her breathing was unobstructed.

So this card allowed her to breathe underwater!

She lifted her face from the water and circled back to the deck.

Seeing that she had come from the first floor instead of the water, and after she explained the specific situation, Chen Jian was incredibly impressed: “You are amazing! But how did you know about the limited-edition card?”

Zhu Ci couldn’t be bothered to answer; among those present, only he still firmly believed she was an NPC.

Yu Jiayi mused: “Then you should go tonight. Be careful. If there’s any emergency, you can use this to call me.” Having said that, she gave her a communication card.

Communication cards allow for speech between two cards, functioning like a walkie-talkie, but they are easy to carry and waterproof. Zhu Ci had seen them in the mall before, but since they weren’t cheap, she hadn’t bought one.

She tucked the card away and searched for Tana among the crowd. Tana’s figure was slight and hard to spot if one wasn’t looking closely.

She finally found her, only to see Tana staring at her with eyes as gentle as water. Tana mouthed words.

“I believe you.”

All the estrangement vanished into nothingness. Perhaps, from the start, she hadn’t actually been angry with her.

Zhu Ci responded with a bright smile.

Time skipped back to the present. Isaac was silent for a moment, showing an uninterpretable expression: “Oh? Someone is being proactive today. Good, it should be this way; sacrifice is your destiny.”

“In that case, can you grant me one wish?” Zhu Ci asked, her hands behind her back.

“Naturally. I am always lenient toward beautiful ladies.”

Isaac leaned forward and bowed deeply, looking at the beautiful woman below with determined eyes.

She parted her lips: “Then I want to walk over there myself.”

The howling sea wind whipped the surface of the water. The sea at night was entirely different from the day, turning into a bottomless, dangerous form, as if things were swimming in the sea, waiting for prey to enter the water.

The players, just like on the first day, gathered around the edge of the deck.

Some players clutched their chests excitedly, praying for her.

Zhu Ci walked to the edge of the ship and gazed at the sea.

The dog whistle sounded, and she entered the water like a kite with a broken string.

The seabed was dim and unclear; nothing could be seen. She summoned her gun and the underwater flashlight she had exchanged for in advance, took a massive gulp of air, and shone the light forward.

Serrated teeth.

A vast expanse of white, ghastly serrated teeth.

Suddenly, it flashed before her like a ghost.

Zhu Ci snapped her hand up and fired a shot forward.

No gunshot could be heard in the water, only the muffled thud of breaking through the water.

Those “serrated teeth” swayed left and right as if in agonizing pain, then turned vicious, charging straight at her face with lightning speed!

She kicked off hard, swimming downward to dodge the impact.

The ocean was very deep, and the visibility of the light was too low, making it hard to see. She barely dodged this time, but she wouldn’t be able to dodge the next strike.

Pain shot from her right shoulder, a stinging sensation spreading through her entire body.

A shadow loomed. The massive creature with serrated teeth had bitten her, seemingly piercing through her entire shoulder.

Zhu Ci raised her foot and stomped on the monster several times, but it remained motionless, unaffected in the slightest.

She swung the gun in her right hand toward her left with all her might, caught it with her left hand, and then shoved the gun into the gaps of the serrated teeth.

She fired three consecutive shots.

The monster felt the pain and released its grip. She clutched the wound on her shoulder and swam toward the bottom of the ship.

This was not a monster she could defeat; it was far too terrifying, and she had no idea where its eyes were.

How was she supposed to collect the teardrops?

Since things had come to this, she had to leave first.

She still remembered the general direction of that door and swam desperately toward it, enduring the intense pain to force it open.

Just as the monster was about to catch up, she slammed the door shut.

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