Chapter 192 Approaching
Fu Qingyan was initially startled but quickly realized, could this cloaked girl who looked very powerful actually be a player?
No, that was unlikely.
If the other party were indeed a player, she wouldn’t have asked such a question. After all, their group was easily identifiable at a glance. Since she asked, it could only mean she was suspicious but not entirely certain.
This implied she wasn’t a player but an NPC.
An NPC who could recognize and understand the identity of a player might sound unbelievable, but it was quite normal in the game “World Tree: Origin.” At least, many posts on the official game forum mentioned and discussed such matters. Some even tried to tell NPCs that their world was a giant game, only to be considered madmen and burned at the stake by the NPCs.
Interactions like this between players and NPCs were interesting, but Fu Qingyan noticed something else. The NPCs described in those posts who knew or could understand the existence of players seemed to be NPCs who held a certain status or had special characteristics, similar to key story characters in other games.
The girl hiding in the cloak before her exuded this feeling, which was one of the main reasons Fu Qingyan believed she was an NPC.
“Do you know about players?” Fu Qingyan asked directly, as the storm in her mind didn’t need verbal probes.
Upon hearing this, Li Wen tilted her head slightly, her brows raised a little. It seemed her classmate took her for an NPC.
Based on her understanding of Fu Qingyan, Li Wen didn’t know what kind of thought process her classmate had gone through. She only asked that question to create a sense of unfamiliarity, to prevent Fu Qingyan from guessing her real-life identity from her words and actions. But now, it seemed it had produced a different effect?
Li Wen didn’t mind this much. Players had their communication advantages, and NPCs had their own advantageous domains. If the other party mistook her, so be it. She didn’t need to rush to explain anything.
“I am Mephistopheles,” Li Wen said calmly, not answering directly. “It looks like you are the ones who went missing from the ship?”
Mephistopheles?
Fu Qingyan blinked, finding it difficult to determine if this was an NPC’s name or if the player was role-playing. But it wasn’t important; she quickly reacted, “Missing?”
So, Li Wen briefly narrated what happened on the ship, including the matter of the Kingdom’s Navy and the pirate fugitive Joseph.
“Now, Colonel Grant believes that the mad sailor Old Joey who went missing on the ship is Joseph himself, and you are his subordinates or accomplices.”
Li Wen deliberately spoke in a cold and suspicious tone, hoping Fu Qingyan would understand her meaning.
“How could there be such a thing…”
It wasn’t Fu Qingyan who spoke, but another classmate. Li Wen merely glanced at them and then looked away. After all, among these people, the only one she truly knew and could rely on was Fu Qingyan. As for the others, she didn’t really know them.
Since that was the case, there was no need to pay them any attention.
As for Fu Qingyan, after receiving the information from Li Wen, her first thought was that Old Joey had tricked them. But the next moment, she negated that thought. After all, Old Joey’s anger and regret at the time didn’t seem fake.
“We did encounter that old sailor. However, I don’t think he would be a pirate,” Fu Qingyan said truthfully. Since the other party showed willingness to communicate, it meant she also didn’t agree with this possibility. Otherwise, she would have dealt with them and the drowned corpses together long ago.
“Old Joey told us some of his past experiences. He said he had to go alone to avenge the Twin-tailed Mermaid, otherwise the curse would not be broken. Although I don’t know what that is, Old Joey also told us to stay put to avoid danger. This shouldn’t be the actions of a pirate.”
So that’s how it is. However, that wasn’t an ordinary Twin-tailed Mermaid, but an ancient relic with evil power. Let alone the tormented old sailor Old Joey, even someone like Colonel Grant might not be able to handle it.
The only perfect solution was to find a way to approach the statue and control it using incantations. Old Joey might have had this intention, but his nautical diary containing the incantations was now in Li Wen’s hands. Without the incantations, he wouldn’t be a match for the Twin-tailed Mermaid statue.
“Do you know which direction Old Joey went?” Li Wen asked. But after thinking for a moment, she changed her wording, “If you know, then lead the way. Of course, you can also stay put if you wish, but there’s no guarantee that guy won’t find some other way to kill you later.”
Fu Qingyan certainly didn’t think this was a difficult matter. On the contrary, it was quite beneficial for them. However, the girl didn’t agree immediately. Instead, she turned back and looked at her other teammates for their thoughts, even though she knew they would unconditionally trust the decision she made. w.
After a brief and unnecessary consultation, everyone agreed to lead Li Wen.
Along the way, Li Wen also learned about Old Joey’s past from Fu Qingyan’s words. W
Thirty years ago, before the Adventurer was called that name, it was originally a salvage ship, not a merchant ship. Old Joey was a sailor and diver on the ship. Their job was not to catch fish, but to salvage sunken ships, corpses, and some gold, silver, and antiques swallowed by the deep sea.
Theoretically, this was illegal. But in the face of profit, the law was ineffective, especially since they were a group of daredevils who had already entrusted their lives to the sea.
On their last salvage mission, Old Joey’s captain bought information from an informant. It was said that on the rim of the endless sea area, there was a ship full of money and treasures sunk there, unattended. This was because that sea area was a dead zone, extremely dangerous. Any ship or sailor that ventured deep into it would meet with disaster.
But Old Joey and his crew were young and spirited, and this was information bought at a high price. After a heated discussion, they decided to go.
Upon successfully reaching their destination, Old Joey was the first to discover the location of the sunken ship and found a statue of a Twin-tailed Mermaid in the shattered cabins. According to the agreement made before departure, they were only allowed to take money or valuable goods on this trip. Everything else should be returned to the sea, but Old Joey did not comply and secretly hid the statue.
Afterward, the nightmare descended. People on the ship began to die tragically from inexplicable causes. When only Old Joey was left, he knew this was a tragedy caused by his own greed. Although extremely grief-stricken, he decided to do whatever it took to survive from the statue and seek a way for revenge. So he began to feign madness, and this method indeed tricked the statue, allowing him to survive.
What Fu Qingyan said could be confirmed by what was written in the nautical diary, but Li Wen still had some unanswered questions, such as why feigning madness allowed him to survive? How did a sailing ship without any extraordinary power support manage to reach the endless sea area?
And lastly, was Old Joey really not crazy?
Although there were many questions, Li Wen was not anxious. She could feel that she was getting incredibly close to the truth.
