Chapter 54: Chapter 37: The Mermaid’s Hypnotic Plea for Help
Aileen calmed down, "If it’s a magic gold mine, it’s indeed worth wiping out the whole island! Then we might as well keep guessing—magic gold mines are rich in magic power, even buried hundreds of meters under the sea, they could still be discovered by passing treasure hunting experts, so what’s the deal with this sunken ship?"
Chun responded without hesitation, "Of course, it was deliberately sunk to cover the mine, and then in the future, they can use the excuse of salvaging the ship to mine!"
Deep-sea mining instantly reminded Chun of the Fishman miners in the opening animation. Or the submarines of Bronze Vanguard City.
Aileen chuckled, "But octopuses love to crawl into spaces like this sunken ship’s empty hold—so they ended up creating more trouble and couldn’t extract!"
Chun’s heart skipped a beat, "But I have a sperm whale, the natural enemy of octopuses, as long as the whale is treated well, it may be able to clear the obstacles!"
Aileen asked, "So, how many people know you have a whale?"
"Just Sherry and me, now you know too."
Aileen sneered, "Oh? Are you sure?"
Chun realized something was wrong, "Fafnir knows too?"
Aileen laughed, "Why else do you think you got this token? Just for reporting a few rat and cockroach plagues to secure a 10 billion project? Besides, the rats and cockroaches aren’t even ones you killed."
Clearly this is a -10 billion project, right!
Chun felt conflicted.
After all, he agreed with Sherry to keep the whale a secret, as it was also the secret behind the spice and his ultimate trump card. But Sherry, at the flower shop, exclusively sells Frost Rose, hand-rolled by Fafnir. Their unusual relationship might have led Sherry to reveal to Fafnir that he had a whale, or maybe it was because of this revelation that Fafnir pulled him out of jail?
This also meant that his trump card was exposed, having to face enormous risks of being cut off by the consortium’s high-end player teams, consequences unimaginable.
Aileen smiled triumphantly, "So you see, in this world, the one you can trust the most is me!"
Ugh, there you go stirring trouble again!
Chun laughed incredulously, well, Sherry wasn’t exactly a pure lily, playing duet scams with Vivian, embezzling business funds. It was through his threats and reports that things reached this point, a karma he deserved, no need to dwell on it. A big boss never cares how subordinates scheme, as long as they aren’t traitors. If they are, just buy them out!
So when it comes to things like this, of course, bring Fafnir into the fold too! Why keep any outsider among our people?
Chun shamelessly said, "Of course I trust you, then can you help me win Fafnir’s heart?"
Aileen laughed heartily, "She’s the beloved daughter of the City Lord, a woman who’s visited the Golden Empire to see true mighty eagles! Can you compare to the Golden Empire?"
Tch! Eagle statue that big?
Chun grumbled, "Then I’ll start collecting magic gold piece by piece! Can you help me find where on the whale there are more gold pieces?"
Aileen said, "Once you’ve collected the gold pieces, you can go to the island’s blacksmith to melt them down and forge something simple for yourself, like a ring or something."
That’s right, practice forging! Besides, gold has a low melting point, low hardness, and good plasticity, making it the perfect material for beginners to practice with—the only downside is it’s too expensive, and beginners can only dream. But mine is magic gold! Just repeatedly melting and forging, even if I’m not skilled, reaching advanced levels, is not too much to ask, right?
Chun jumped into the water, thoroughly exploring the whale’s entire body, finding a few more gold pieces, and also discovering fragments of glass.
"What are these fragments?"
Aileen recognized them, "Old gentlemen’s treasure bottles or cabinet glass, said to mask the magical power emission of treasures, preventing thieves from easily finding them."
Chun understood, "So this ship must still have many glass bottles like these to prevent the magic gold mine from being further discovered!"
Aileen sighed, "Octopuses love crawling into bottles, so imagine how many small octopuses are on the ship. Long-term absorption of magic gold’s power, they are bound to become a formidable sea monster army."
Then the whale must become a god! But as long as I’m deliberately placed by Fafnir, maybe I don’t have to worry about making the whale a god?
Finally, Chun collected a total of six gold pieces of various sizes, just enough to make a ring, with some left over!
And the whale’s condition adjusted slightly, now to continue finding the fishery.
—System Alert: Warning! You have left the range of Plague Island. If it causes the spread of the plague, you will bear significant escape charges.
Holy Shit!? The vast sea, just me and a whale on a ship, how could it spread?
But it serves as a reminder to avoid merchant ships. At the very least, being sighted might still level charges of escape, right?
Then things continued to unfold:
—System Alert: Congratulations... Your muscle memory successfully recalled Advanced Fishing Technique level 3... Life +1.
—System Alert: Congratulations... Your Basic Sailing Technique upgraded to level 3, Achievement earned: Load +1, Physical Strength +1.
But Chun felt no joy from leveling up; instead, he felt heavy-hearted. While he encountered quite a few small fish en route, none were large enough to fill the belly. After all, a sperm whale is not a blue whale, which has baleen to eat small fish and shrimp easily.
Typically, fishing grounds are either where ocean currents meet, river estuaries, or coral reef areas. This area is far out at sea and nothing, which likely means it’s an ’ocean desert,’ a place with nothing but plankton, which is why they say ’a whale falls, all creatures thrive.’
But worry can’t help it, if it can’t find anything, how can I?
Suddenly anxious, the whale twitched, stirring up violent waves!
Chun panicked, "What’s wrong with you?"
The whale trembled all over—System Alert: The whale received the Daughter of the Sea’s distress call! Must go to rescue her.
The next moment, the whale changed course, sped up, heading straight for the deep sea, with the fishing rod creaking under strain!
Holy Shit!?
Witnessing the rapidly increasing fishing skill proficiency, Chun realized the whale had troubles, this was real fishing!
Chun immediately steadied the fishing rod, loosening the line, "Who is the Daughter of the Sea?"
The whale replied—Must rescue the Daughter of the Sea!
Aileen stated gravely, "It should be the mermaid, legend has it in the Silver Sea there’s a very powerful one with a Song of Hypnosis. Sailors under hypnosis either kill each other or jump into the sea, and no one can dissuade them! The whale’s direction is towards Silver City, possibly hypnotized!"
Chun was incredulous, "Silver Sea? That far?"
Aileen said, "Whale’s perception has always been far, hundreds or thousands of nautical miles can be heard. Moreover, this whale is old and just injured, definitely can’t resist the hypnosis."
No way, wouldn’t it take half a day to swim so far?
Chun hurriedly confirmed, "You’re injured, haven’t eaten yet, don’t rush over there!"
A red alert exploded in Chun’s eyes—System Alert: Warning! Must save the Daughter of the Sea.
Holy Shit, would disagreeing lead to a fallout? What a powerful existence this mermaid must be!
Aileen remarked, "I think this hypnosis might be similar to some bar’s knockout drug, since you can’t stop or oppose, go along with its intention, and compete for hypnosis dominance!"
There are knockout drugs in bars in the game too? Holy Shit, I didn’t know there was such stuff during the public test, I’m too upright...
Chun immediately called out, "Then we’ll go save together!"
The whale’s response changed—We must save the Daughter of the Sea!
Chun was delighted, "Aileen knows so much! What next?"
Aileen seriously said, "I can only think of one way. We enter the whale’s soul to control the whale—like how we previously entered the bat’s soul! With the whale being hypnotized by a powerful mermaid, it should be unable to resist our entry, especially since we’re friends."
Chun was stunned, "Does this mean I have to die again? I can’t afford to die with magic gold!"
"You don’t need to die; don’t you have a few bottles of Centennial Tapioca Burn? Get drunk first!"
Get drunk? Indeed!
Chun opened a bottle, a green glow spilled from the bottle opening, instantly spreading a glittering light around the ship—System Alert: You smell the wondrous aroma of enchanting wine.
Holy Shit!! A game wine’s aroma richness depends on how bright its glow is, and how far it spreads!
Aileen was surprised too, "This aroma, even noble family’s famous vintage can’t compare!"
Chun was excited, "So this is the qualitative change of a century-old brew? The cheapest tapioca with toxic potential surpasses famous wines?"
Aileen quipped irritably, "After 100 years, the distillery would go bankrupt, hurry and drink! The closer to the mermaid, the stronger the opposing hypnosis power, the fewer opportunities we have!"
Down the hatch, Harashao! Chun drank it all in one go.
—System Alert: Warning! You are physically weak and have over-imbibed, entering an intoxicated state...
Chun’s already hazy world became more chaotic, now even sound couldn’t be heard—until the screen went black!
Then, in the darkness, a sliver of a spinning lighted doorway opened, Aileen’s voice came from outside the crevice, "Quickly, come out!"
—System Alert: You have entered a soul state...