Time rewinds to ten minutes earlier.
Luo Shengle found an excuse to borrow a colleague’s phone. Her thumb hovered hesitantly above the call button as she asked, “Then may I ask, how should I describe you? If you’re willing, you could tell me your honored name.”
Yi Fengchu fell silent.
Previously, he had spread his so called “honored name” to people he wasn’t very familiar with, though in truth, it was nothing more than something he had fabricated during a bout of adolescent chuunibyou.
But if he were to say it out loud to someone he actually knew…
Yi Fengchu’s usually placid emotions rippled for once. He carefully sensed this feeling and suddenly realized that it was probably “embarrassment.”
So Luo Shengle waited quietly for a few seconds, before seeing the Narrator’s reply appear:
【Use your first impression to describe me.】
【Any description, any title, so long as there is a connection, it can establish a link with me.】
“I get to describe you? Is that really okay?”
Luo Shengle froze for a moment, instantly feeling the weight of responsibility. How should one describe a deity as accurately and respectfully as possible?
This was a question traditionally pondered by divine followers, apostles or even popes. Any high ranking existence had never lacked the most devout believers to compose, praise and sing their names.
Their honored titles and might were often conveyed through the most beautiful words, spoken like poetry, rising and echoing beneath magnificently adorned church reliefs and painted domes, carried by the clear voices of choirs, day and night without cease.
And now, the heavy responsibility of describing a mysterious higher being had abruptly fallen upon her shoulders…
The Narrator spoke lightly, casually but how could she possibly describe Him casually?
How much description would be appropriate, without causing offense? That, too, was a problem…
Yi Fengchu watched as Luo Shengle contemplated with a grave expression for a long while before finally pressing the call button as if she had made up her mind.
“Praise be to you, great Narrator.”
Mm. That was a title He had provided Himself; it couldn’t possibly be wrong.
Based on the authority the Narrator had displayed, one that seemed capable of knowing past and future alike, Luo Shengle cautiously added,
“Master of the River of Fate.”
“And also…”
Just as the words reached her lips, the intertwined masses of silver white serpents surfaced once more in her mind, along with those resplendent molten gold pupils. Without realizing it, she spoke again:
“ King of the Silver Serpent Host…”
As her words fell, the phone in her hand was hung up once more.
Luo Shengle looked uneasy. “Mr. Narrator, may I ask, was that acceptable?”
【You did very well.】
Yi Fengchu was quite satisfied. At last, he possessed an honorific composed by someone other than himself. At the very least, he could no longer be considered a completely solitary commander with no followers at all. He could barely maintain the appearance of having believers beyond “*Chu Fu.”
And at the moment this honorific entered another person’s ears, a “connection” was formed.
On the phone screen, a slender line emitting a faint golden glow appeared, piercing straight through the wall and extending toward a distant direction. It connected to a brilliant point of light, conspicuous like a lighthouse ignited within boundless darkness.
“Let’s go,” Yi Fengchu said with a smile, pointing toward that glowing point. “Let’s remind this gentleman that hanging up on someone before they’ve finished speaking is rather discourteous.”
Time returns to the present.
This time, Director Jiang obediently answered the phone. His pleading voice trembled slightly. “What do you want to know? I’ll tell you everything! Just please ask the existence you worship to spare me…”
He sounded utterly terrified. One could only wonder what Mr. Narrator had just done to him…
A bubble of curiosity popped up in Luo Shengle’s mind, only to be pricked and dismissed as she refocused on the most important matter at hand.
She spoke with solemn calm. “Please don’t be afraid, sir. Mr. Narrator is a benevolent deity. As long as you are willing to cooperate and answer the following questions truthfully, He will naturally not be angered.”
“O Okay…” The voice on the other end was weak. “What do you want to know?”
“I want to know, within the history of the Whale Bone Aquarium, where did that whale bone eventually go?”
“……”
Director Jiang fell silent for a moment. All Luo Shengle could hear was his rapid, uneasy breathing. It was as though he were trapped in some terrifying nightmare and took a long time to wake from it before his hoarse voice slowly sounded:
“In fact, before I was even born, the whale bone had already disappeared. So I likewise can’t be certain where it went. I can only make conjectures based on the information left behind by my ancestors.”
“My great grandfather, the original founder of the aquarium, developed a habit of keeping daily journals due to his many years spent sailing at sea. In his notes from his later years, his mental state was on the brink of collapse and confusion. He repeatedly expressed regret and repentance to our family.”
“He said that he should never have salvaged that ‘whale bone.’ That he had offended a god’s offspring, thereby bringing calamity and a curse upon the land.”
“He also said, ‘it’ was growing, growing larger and larger. This made it impossible for him to imagine what that ‘whale bone’ would grow into after a hundred years…”
Yi Fengchu tapped lightly on the phone screen, pensive, beginning to organize the information gathered so far.
First, the so called whale bone was alive. It was not merely the remains of a whale but something originating from a divine creature, a god’s descendant.
Second, the aquarium itself was also alive. Unknown words would surface within it, resembling the thoughts or diary entries of some living being.
Lastly, the “whale bone” would continue to grow. Perhaps one day it would reach a size that ordinary buildings could no longer contain and the aquarium just so happened to have been demolished and rebuilt several decades ago…
“The whale bone should be inside the aquarium.”
After a brief pause, Yi Fengchu quickly reached his conclusion. “Or rather, the new aquarium was built around the bone. To conceal it, the previous director chose to construct walls following the shape of the massive skeleton, building corridors, halls and rooms of all sizes within the remains…”
“I’d guess the whale bone is a divine creature of the ocean domain? In that case, the staff members’ distorted belief that ‘fish are the most perfect’ makes sense. For children of the sea, humans who cannot survive in the ocean truly are inferior life forms,” Yi Fengchu speculated.
The phone, which had been silent for some time, suddenly spoke, affirming his thoughts:
【The whale bone should be the offspring of the Mother of Tides.】
【In the mystical world, as the bloodline descendants and chosen kin of a deity, it and its kind are called the Holy Sons of the Sea Tide.】
【At their peak, they once spread across the ocean floors of countless worlds, a royal lineage that helped their mother rule the seas…】
At this point, the phone added meaningfully:
【Unfortunately, ever since the Mother of Tides entered an abnormal state, no longer responding properly to prayers or granting protection, the era of the Holy Sons of the Sea Tide gradually came to an end. To think they would fall to such a state today.】
Gripping the phone tightly, Luo Shengle realized as well that she had been walking all along through the remains of a god’s descendant, facing contamination and danger of an extremely high level…
Her expression darkened. Now, the question that concerned her most was this: how was she supposed to soothe the weeping of a god descendant’s corpse?
She couldn’t possibly summon this god descendant’s mother and force a “family reunion” could she?
No.
Even if she somehow could, given the degree of hatred toward humanity that the whale bone had displayed within the dreamscape, it likely wouldn’t spare her life.
In the eyes of that god descendant, humans had first dragged part of its remains, once sunk in the sea, waiting for its mother’s return, onto land for exhibition. Then they forced it to witness people imprisoning fish, “kin” whose forms were even closer to its own, inside glass tanks for entertainment…
Just imagining its fury made Luo Shengle’s scalp go numb.
Perhaps, in its view, confining humans in water tanks and cultivating them into fish was both a punitive venting of anger and a form of mercy and evolution?
Once Director Jiang had revealed everything he knew, Luo Shengle hung up the phone and spoke with a grave expression. “Mr. Narrator, it seems this side quest is beyond my ability to resolve.”
“All I can do is survive these three days as cautiously as possible.”
Yi Fengchu, however, felt that she was still being too optimistic and continued guiding her:
【Not just you, no ordinary player could possibly resolve a conflict involving a god’s descendant.】
【Then why does the system keep selecting you, sending you to complete tasks that are theoretically impossible to finish?】
Luo Shengle froze abruptly. A chill crept up her spine, spreading upward from the soles of her feet.
Yi Fengchu said with unconcealed sarcasm:
【In the amusement park, you are toys for the gods’ amusement, sacrifices to quell a god descendant’s wrath, chess pieces to probe the state of true gods.】
【Anything but yourselves.】
【From the moment you entered this instance, you were abandoned. You are destined to use blood to temporarily extinguish a god descendant’s hatred and sorrow.】
As Luo Shengle stared in shock and anger, “ The Narrator” laid bare the system’s true intent with unusually blunt clarity.
So the side quest wasn’t impossible to complete… On the contrary, every player who perished in the aquarium would complete it at the very end.
They simply couldn’t complete it alive.
Luo Shengle felt as though her heart were being clenched tightly. Her face burned with pain, as if lashed by thorns. Disbelief, sorrow and rage at being treated as both sacrifice and discard converged into a single, surging vortex.
At the center of that vortex, she seemed to hear the Narrator’s soft chuckle as He asked, almost coaxingly:
【Are you willing to accept this?】
Those four simple words lingered in Luo Shengle’s mind for a long time, like a silver white bird skimming the surface of water, its wings stirring up monstrous waves that left her unable to find calm.
She stood perfectly still, like a frozen statue yet inside her, searing fury erupted from her heart, bursting forth amid her increasingly rapid breaths.
After a long silence, Luo Shengle’s voice came out slightly hoarse, as though she had made a firm decision.
“I’m not willing.”
【Then call upon me within the dream and welcome my descent.】
Through the slowly fading silver white characters, Luo Shengle seemed able to vaguely imagine a mysterious smile.
If He truly were a malicious evil god, she thought, no one would be able to escape His temptation and manipulation.
In many mythologies, the serpent symbolized temptation, mystery and wisdom… much like this king of serpents, who always seemed able to stir the most violent storms with a gentle, composed demeanor.
✦ ✧ ✦
Nycreth
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
✦ END OF CHAPTER ✦ BEGIN COFFEE NEGOTIATIONS ✦
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
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ChaptersChapter 1 · Mysterious letterChapter 2 · Divine MessagesChapter 3 · Gamer ForumChapter 4 · Invitation from GodChapter 5 · JudgeChapter 6 · TerminalChapter 7 · Destruction of recordsChapter 8 · Whale Bone Aquarium (1)Chapter 9 · Whale Bone Aquarium (2)Chapter 10 · Whale Bone Aquarium (3)Chapter 11 · Whale Bone Aquarium (4)Chapter 12 · Whale Bone Aquarium (5)Chapter 13 · Whale Bone Aquarium (6)Chapter 14 · Whale Bone Aquarium (7)Chapter 15 · Whale Bone Aquarium (8)Chapter 16 · Whale Bone Aquarium (9)Chapter 17 · Whale Bone Aquarium (10)Chapter 18 · Whale Bone Aquarium (11)Chapter 19 Part 1 · Whale Bone Aquarium (12)Chapter 19 Part 2 · Whale Bone Aquarium (12)Chapter 20 · Interlude: His ApostlesChapter 21 · Echoes in the pupa (1)Chapter 22 · Echoes in the pupa (2)Chapter 23 · Echoes in the Pupa (3)Chapter 24 · Echoes in the Pupa (4)Chapter 25 · Echoes in the Pupa (5)Chapter 26 · Echoes in the Pupa (6)Chapter 27 · Echoes in the Pupa (7)Chapter 28 · Echoes in the Pupa (8)Chapter 29 · Echoes in the Pupa (9)Chapter 30 · Echoes in the Pupa (10)Chapter 31 · Echoes in the Pupa (11)Chapter 32 · Echoes in the Pupa (12)Chapter 33 · Echoes in the Pupa (13)Chapter 34 · Interlude: Investigation by the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs (1)Chapter 35 · Interlude: Investigation by the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs (2)Chapter 36 · Interlude: Investigation by the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs (3)Chapter 37 · Small World: God’s Chessboard (1)Chapter 38 · Small World: God’s Chessboard (2)Chapter 39 · Small World: God’s Chessboard (3)Chapter 40 · Small World: God’s Chessboard (4)Chapter 41 · Advertisement Coming Soon (1)Chapter 42 · Advertisement Coming Soon (2)Chapter 43 · Advertisement Coming Soon (3)Chapter 44 · Advertisement Coming Soon (4)Chapter 45 · Advertisement Coming Soon (5)Chapter 46 · Advertisement Coming Soon (6)Chapter 47 · Advertisement Coming Soon (7)Chapter 48 · Advertisement Coming Soon (8)Chapter 49 · Advertisement Coming Soon (9)Chapter 50 · Advertisement Coming Soon (10)Chapter 51 · Advertisement Coming Soon (11)Chapter 52 · Advertisement Coming Soon (12)Chapter 53 · Advertisement Coming Soon to EndChapter 54 · Interlude – Tonight No One Sleeps (1)Chapter 55 · Interlude – Tonight No One Sleeps (2)Chapter 56 · Interlude – Tonight No One Sleeps (3)Chapter 57 · Interlude – Tonight No One Sleeps (4)Chapter 58 · Childhood Ghost Stories (1)Chapter 59 · Childhood Ghost Stories (2)Chapter 60 · Childhood Ghost Stories (3)Chapter 61 · Childhood Ghost Stories (4)Chapter 62 · Childhood Ghost Stories (5)Chapter 63 · Childhood Ghost Stories (6)Chapter 64 · Childhood Ghost Stories (7)Chapter 65 · Childhood Ghost Stories (8)Chapter 66 · Childhood Ghost Stories (9)Chapter 67 · Childhood Ghost Stories (10)Chapter 68 · Childhood Ghost Stories (11)Chapter 69 · Childhood Ghost Stories (12)Chapter 70 · Childhood Ghost Stories (13)Chapter 71 · Childhood Ghost Stories (14)Chapter 72 · Childhood Ghost Stories (15)Chapter 73 · Childhood Ghost Stories (16)Chapter 74 · Childhood Ghost Stories (17)Chapter 75 · Childhood Ghost Stories (18)Chapter 76 · Childhood Ghost Stories (19)Chapter 77 · Childhood Ghost Stories (20)Chapter 78 · Childhood Ghost Stories (Complete)Chapter 79 · Interlude: His Kingdom (1)Chapter 80 · Interlude: His Kingdom (2)Chapter 81 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (1)Chapter 82 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (2)Chapter 83 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (3)Chapter 84 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (4)Chapter 85 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (5)Chapter 86 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (Complete)Chapter 87 · Fate casually rolls the dice (1)Chapter 88 · Fate Casually rolls the dice (2)Chapter 89 · Fate Casually rolls the dice (3)Chapter 90 · Fate Casually rolls the dice (4)Chapter 91 · Fate casually tosses the dice (5)Chapter 92 · Fate casually tosses the dice (6)Chapter 93 · Fate casually tosses the dice (7)Chapter 94 · Fate casually tosses the dice (8)Chapter 95 · Fate casually tosses the dice (9)Chapter 96 · Fate casually tosses the dice (10)Chapter 97 · Fate Casually tosses the dice (11)Chapter 98 · Fate casually tosses the dice (12)Chapter 99 · Fate casually tosses the dice (13)Chapter 100 · Fate casually tosses the dice (14)Chapter 101 · Fate casually tosses the dice (15)Chapter 102 · Fate casually tosses the dice (16)Chapter 103 · Fate casually tosses the dice (17)Chapter 104 · Fate casually tosses the dice (18)Chapter 105 · Fate casually tosses the dice (19)Chapter 106 · Fate casually tosses the dice (20)Chapter 107 · Fate casually tosses the dice (21)Chapter 108 · Fate casually tosses the dice (The End)Chapter 109 · Interlude