525: 8.125 Hide-and-seek*

8.125 Hide-and-seek*

Lu Yizhou was 'escorted' by two ship crews to the engine room. The path was already familiar to him and hence, he did not show any special reaction when the door opened to show the vast and complicated designs of various large machines.  2

For some reason, the interior of the room was awashed in a creepy green glow like someone had put a night vision filter on him. The narrow door was akin to the mouth of a large beast, eager to swallow its prey's flesh and bones. 

The crews watched his reaction closely, seemingly wanting to see his panicked and flustered look but found none. They harrumphed in dissatisfaction and shoved him in. "Get inside, murderer!"

The door slammed close behind him before Lu Yizhou could react, followed by the familiar mechanical voice inside his mind.

[[Welcome, Player Lu Yizhou and Player 666 to the game hide-and-seek: the big bad werewolf's playground.]]

[[In here, you will be stripped of your identity as a 'werewolf' and all skill cards will be deactivated. Please try your best not to be caught by the big bad werewolf!]]

[[Consequence for failure: death. Game time: 5 hours]]

[[Player loading…]]

[[The game will start in 2 hours 43 minutes. Please prepare yourself!]]

"Hide and seek?" Lu Yizhou muttered under his breath and sneered. Now he knew why the players were so helpless in front of the beast version of Captain Rong and were easily defeated. As it turned out, the rubbish system had blocked all of their skills. In the end, they could only become a group of weak chickens trying to escape from the executioner. 

[666: H–Host, 666… also have to play the game? So scary QAQ]

Lu Yizhou snorted. [You don't even need to do anything. What are you afraid of?]

[666: But the consequence for failure is death! Not only that, it's a very painful death! Host's flesh and inner organs will be devoured when you're still alive. What kind of cruel punishment is this?!]

Now that 666 brought that up, Lu Yizhou suddenly recalled the scene of Captain Rong chewing on the girl's inner organ while the latter was still twitching and struggling on her last breath. His stomach instantly felt queasy. He sighed and shoved the image to the back of his mind. There was no use getting his knickers in a twist. What was most important was that he had achieved his goal.

—Officially entered the engine room as an eliminated werewolf.

Lu Yizhou had been thinking of a reason as to how he could explore the engine room without anyone's suspicion and the only method he could think of was to become an eliminated werewolf. In this way, nobody would question what he was up to here and he could do whatever he wanted… before the game started. 

If he wanted the ship to capsize, then he needed to start from here.

Fortunately, Lu Yizhou was the first 'victim' and he still had more than two hours to explore.

He started to move and familiarize himself with the place. There were more than five NPC corpses scattered all over the second floor. However, Lu Yizhou could not find the corpse of the players who were eaten by Captain Rong. Not even a speck of bloodstains remained. Recalling how the player's body disappeared soon after he killed him yesterday, Lu Yizhou assumed that the same thing also applied here.

In this hide-and-seek game, Captain Rong would be 'it' and he would try to capture the eliminated werewolves. After that, he would eat them before they died and voilà, the corpse would automatically disappear after a while. It was a perfect camouflaged crime. 

Any other player would have freaked out when they encountered these corpses and the moving countdown was akin to death verdict for them. In this enclosed space, their psychological defense would be eroded bit by bit until they lost their composure, gradually creating the mentality 'I am dead. There's no way I can get out of this place alive.'

However, Lu Yizhou was different. He was used to seeing corpses that he did not even bat an eyelid at the sight of them. The two hours buffer was akin to God's gift for him. With 666's help, he memorized the blueprints of the engine room and marked the places where he could hide. Not only that, he also planned on how to use the environment to his advantage. 

According to that night's observation, Captain Rong seemed to sniff the air before he sensed Lu Yizhou's presence. It meant that he mainly used his nose to hunt the players.

Lu Yizhou fell into thoughts. That was quite problematic. He had no idea what kind of scent he emitted or whether it was just a special scent which could only be detected by Captain Rong alone. Either way… being caught by Captain Rong was only a matter of time and a fight was inevitable. 

He had to prepare.

Time passed quickly and three more werewolves entered, two men and one woman. Lu Yizhou had seen them before. All of them had abstained yesterday so it was easy to identify them. No wonder they were the guest players' first targets.

When they entered, their faces were ugly and the hot-tempered man immediately exploded, "Where's that motherfucker?! Where is he?! What the fuck is he thinking when he killed Chu Lingshe? Everyone knows that such a high profile guest has to be left for the last! Now because of him, the number of werewolves eliminated is getting higher!"

The woman spoke timidly, her face ghastly pale. "I… I don't think it's right for us to fight right now. Don't you hear the prompt? We have to fight the b–big bad werewolf. Perhaps… we should cooperate?"

"Cooperate my ass!" The hot-tempered man sneered. "Don't think that I will risk my life to save you, missy. The world is not that kind. Now, all we can rely on is ourselves!"

The remaining man was more quiet. He had a calm and scholarly temperament and when he spoke, his voice was steadfast and reasonable. "You two keep talking. I want to explore this place and find somewhere to hide first." After that, he left without looking back.

The hot-tempered man cursed. "Goddamnit! I also have to find a hiding place!"

Lu Yizhou was hiding behind the turbine as he observed the three of them. When the two men left, Lu Yizhou saw the timid woman's expression immediately change. Gone was the nervousness and rookie appearance. Coldness permeated her eyes as she spat fiercely at the direction where the other two had gone. Where was the scaredy-cat woman? This was clearly a tiger pretending to be a household cat!

Lu Yizhou: "..." Out of the three, it seemed like the woman was the most formidable.

[666: *shiver* Women are so scary…]

Lu Yizhou had no intention of cooperating like the woman proposed. What the hot-tempered man said was right. No one wanted to risk their lives to save others, especially for strangers. They could not even save themselves, how could they afford to think of others? In this place, they could only rely on themselves.

Coincidentally, the four of them chose different hiding places and the engine room slowly turned deserted. Only the loud roar of the machines could be heard. 

Lu Yizhou hid behind the circular shaft with a crowbar held in his grip. Because of the rule, he had no way to access his gun nor could he use his skills. Fortunately, a clumsy engineers had left a toolbox behind. Even though it was way worse than a gun, it could still be used as a weapon. Beggars could not afford to choose, especially in life and death situations. Lu Yizhou had only taken a crowbar and left the rest behind for the other three. Now, the rest would be up to themselves.

In different places, four bodies tensed in preparation to fight.

[[Countdown until the game starts: 10 seconds… 9 seconds…]]

Lu Yizhou's heartbeat was calm as he stuck his head out. He had chosen a spot where he could observe the situation around the door and so far, he still had not seen Captain Rong coming in yet. Confusion seeped into his heart. It was already the last few seconds, but how come the 'big bad werewolf' had not made his appearance yet?

[[5 seconds… 4 seconds… 3 seconds…]]

All of a sudden, the hair on Lu Yizhou's body stood on its end. It was utterly inexplicable but the instinct honed by countless battles warned him that a great danger was approaching. Without any hesitation, Lu Yizhou sprung out from his hiding place and rolled on the ground.

[[2 seconds… 1 second…]]

[[Hide-and-seek: big bad werewolf's playground starts! Players, please try your best to survive!]]

On the place where Lu Yizhou had been standing a few seconds ago, a tall burly man materialized from thin air. His enormous stature towered over Lu Yizhou easily and from such a close distance, Lu Yizhou could see the animalistic features on Captain Rong's familiar face; the elongated snout, yellow pupils, mouth full of sharp teeth that was dripping with thick saliva…

The big bad werewolf's gaze landed squarely on Lu Yizhou and a low growl rumbled from his throat.

[666: A–AAAAH, MONSTER!!!]

Lu Yizhou cursed and ran.

Nobody told him that 'it' would appear so suddenly like this! This shitty world really wanted him dead!

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