529: 8.129 Impending Doomsday*

8.129 Impending Doomsday*

Lu Yizhou awoke to 666's mournful cries. His whole body felt so hot yet at the same time, his teeth could not stop chattering. His mind was unusually muddled and that's why it took him a few seconds to register what kind of bastardly thing 666 was saying.2

[666: Uwuwuwu, Host, what should 666 do without you? If you die so soon, will 666 become a scrap system too?]

[666: Host, we are accomplices! QAQ We have even hacked into the simulator's operation— well, no, you coddled 666 into it but 666's point is, what if Admin God comes knocking on 666's door after you're gone?!]

[666: Th–This won't do! 666 has to escape and become a rogue system from now on uwaaa QAQ]

Lu Yizhou: "..." This trash system. Even in such a situation, it only cried for itself. Not only that, it had also thought of its future before he could breathe his last. What an exemplary comrade. Lu Yizhou was so angry that his mind cleared up in an instant.

666 immediately detected the changes in Lu Yizhou's brainwaves. 

[666: H–Host, you're awake?! Oh my Admin God, 666 has been so worried about you!!]

The corner of Lu Yizhou's lips tilted into a sneer. Go on, keep acting. Why couldn't he sense that smidgen of worry when he just woke up earlier? Perceiving that Lu Yizhou had eavesdropped on its treacherous plans, 666 emitted faint sizzling sounds. In a burst of survival will, it spewed out in panic,

[666: Host, not good! You have been unconscious for three hours and the entire cruise ship is a mess! It used to be noisy outside but now it has gone quiet. Something must have gone wrong!!]

Shocked, Lu Yizhou propped himself up and the world instantly spun in front of him, almost making him throw his gut up. Groaning, he could only lean his back against the wall and massage his temple. He found that he was still inside the engine room that was giving off a faint green glow. 

However, something was wrong; very, very wrong.

—The ground was tilted almost thirty degrees. 

Lu Yizhou immediately struggled to his feet and demanded, [Tell me everything that happened after I lost consciousness!] While 666 stuttered on its explanation, Lu Yizhou used the wall as support to walk to the exit. The wounds on his stomach and back were starting to get infected, he could tell, and now he had contracted high fever because of it. But at least his healing ability had stopped the bleeding albeit there was no way it could recover such a serious injury. 

The more Lu Yizhou listened to 666's recounts, the darker his face became.

[666: T–That's all, Host. It's an error caused by the bug, how despicable! We haven't even launched our plan to capsize the ship and now it's going to sink by itself! Host, we should deal with the bug as soon as possible lest it comes up with anything funny again! Host, do you know who it is?!]

[I know.] Perhaps it was because he had jostled his wound too much when he moved or perhaps he had lost too much blood, Lu Yizhou staggered on his feet and gasped sharply, his face paling further until it was terrible to see. If he had not been holding onto the wall, he would have collapsed to the ground.

[666: H–Host, are you okay?!]

[...Fine.] Lu Yizhou gritted his teeth.

[666: But you don't look fine at all! QAQ]

Lu Yizhou stopped on his tracks and took a few steadying breaths. He glanced at the wound on his stomach and found that at one point, it had started bleeding again. Not only that, the high fever and the tilted floor made it hard for him to walk steadily. But he couldn't stay here for long! Three hours… he had been unconscious for three hours. Adding on to the initial preparation time and the game time, then he had left Ellen for more than ten hours! Who knew what kind of thing had happened out there?! It was not like he did not trust Cyrus and Luan to keep him safe but… how could Lu Yizhou be rest assured, especially hearing about what 666 had just said?

No, he had to stay calm. There was no way he could go on with a condition like this. Lu Yizhou regulated his breathing, checked his storage and found that he still had one health potion. Without hesitation, Lu Yizhou gulped it down along with the remaining strength and stamina potions. 

Alas, it was still not enough. The health potion given by the system was only enough to cure mild discomfort such as dizziness, nausea, headache and light fever. On the contrary, Lu Yizhou had at least two broken ribs, a hole in his stomach, a deep gash on his back and many severe skin traumas…

The health potion only managed to clear his mind a bit, but he still felt weak all over.

He closed his eyes, desperate. [Do you have any way for me to regain my strength faster?]

[666: T–That… 666 doesn't have anything QAQ but Host, it's just a suggestion. Please don't take it to heart, okay? Have you forgotten the skill your magic wand has? If… this is just a suggestion, okay? If you change your form back into Irene, then your healing rate will be higher because Irene is a white witch…]

666 had not even finished its sentence before Lu Yizhou summoned the skill. Immediately, his large and broad stature became thin and slender, and his short blonde hair grew lusciously down his back and framed his heart-shaped face. In a blink of an eye, the cold and unyielding man turned into a fragile beauty.

Lu Yizhou took in a deep breath before exhaling slowly. 666 was right. This form was indeed more convenient. Almost instantly, he could feel strength returning to his limbs and his wounds began to heal with a speed visible to naked eyes. 

Surprisingly, 666 had given him two useful suggestions in a row. For this, Lu Yizhou was willing to overlook the heartless comments it made earlier. 

[666: …Thank you? QAQ]

Lu Yizhou moved as soon as he gathered enough energy. However, he had not taken two steps before he realized how horrifying his current state was. His whole body was soaked in blood all over, it was like he had bled out all of the liquid under his veins. How could he meet Ellen like this…? Lu Yizhou clenched his teeth. He did not want Ellen to see how severe his condition was. Hence, Lu Yizhou turned back, found the nearest NPC corpse and stripped the clothes off him without a change in his expression.

[666: …]

[666: …Is this really allowed?]

Lu Yizhou discarded his bloody shirt and slipped on the corpse's clean set of outfits. Fortunately, it fit him just fine. After that, he nodded toward the poor naked NPC. "Thank you for your help."

[666: …Host, you still have approximately one and a half hours until the ship completely sinks into the sea.]

Lu Yizhou did not waste anymore time and dashed out of the engine room, using levitation skill to drag his weak legs across the floor. If anyone were to see him now, they would think that they had met a ghost with how his feet were floating a few centimetres above the ground…

Alas, the short trip out of the engine room was surprisingly uneventful without any people around but the further he walked, the more he could hear the faint sounds of people screaming and cursing, covered entirely by the ear-deafening roar of the sea.

As soon as Lu Yizhou exited the engine room, he was taken aback by the stormy sky and tumultuous sea he glimpsed upon from the long corridor. The whole ship was swaying so much that he almost could not maintain himself upright. Even after drinking the health potion, his stomach still churned noisily at the violent waves that crashed against the ship. 

Step by step, Lu Yizhou climbed up the bottom deck and saw the scene he would never forget in his life.

No more than a few hundreds meters away was a huge wall of water that reached almost the height of a five-story apartment. Amid the endless span of pitch-black sea, their cruise ship seemed so small, so inconsequential that it would definitely be swept away into pieces of wreckage. 

Booming thunder struck intermittently, illuminating the despairing and terrified faces of people who tried to get to the lifeboats. They shoved, kicked and pushed each other, and the unfortunate ones would slip and fall into the sea, their wretched cries swallowed by the starving waves.

At this moment, Lu Yizhou actually could not differentiate between NPCs and players. 

When put in a life and death situation, humans would react all the same. They would be stripped of logic and their barest instinct to survive would push them to seek shelter, to save their own lives, even at the expense of another. 

The whole scene was akin to the impending doomsday and humans were like ants, utterly helpless against the indomitable force of nature.

—And suspended midair, watching the thrilling proceedings with a cold and cruel smile on his face, was none other than the one Lu Yizhou had been worrying about, Ellen.

pqdm.com