It was the tenth day since they had entered the game.

On the shimmering screen, players aired their grievances, one after another.

[Just Turned Eighteen: What fresh hell is this? Thrown onto a cruise ship at the start, and there's a horde of mutant piranhas beneath the waves. I wouldn’t dare go down there. Yesterday, some guy stole my inflatable raft. Turns out, he just fed himself to the fish… Life truly is unpredictable, like sausage inside sausage!]

[Zixuan of the Honors Class: Infected people in the ship, mutated fish in the sea—no supplies in my stash and I don’t even have a sip of water. I used to at least fill up on water, now the faucet sprays black sludge all over my face. Damn this game to hell!]

[Insatiable Kid: So what if it’s dirty water? Boil it, drink it—it’s still water. I’ve lived on it for two days now and I’m fine. You youngsters are just spoiled. My mom says back when she gave birth, she was up and working the fields the next day!]

[That Woman Called Xiao Mei: Oh look, a mama’s boy. Clings to his mom for everything. But I urge you, don’t drink it. There’s still plenty of purified water left, and who knows what's in that sludge. You drink it and turn into one of those infected, then what?]

[Eggs from AAA Wholesale: You can’t drink that water. My roommate did yesterday and now he can barely get out of bed. If an infected barges in, he wouldn’t even make it out the door.]

Ye Shu found herself in agreement with Sister Xiao Mei. That filthy water, virus or not, was bound to make you sick.

Suddenly, a comment caught her eye.

[Daming’s Bad Tune: They all say sashimi is the culprit behind these infected mutants. My teammate never touched any and still turned into a monster. Attacked me in the middle of the night—I almost lost my life.]

[Shrimp Guy: Huh, so it’s not the fish? Now that you mention it, my cousin didn’t eat any raw fish either, and he still became infected.]

Ye Shu stopped reading the forum.

All at once, a flash of intuition struck her. Her mind raced.

The mutant fish in the sea and the infected were the same kind of creature. Which meant… Sashimi wasn’t the real culprit. It was the seawater itself…

All those fish that drank from the polluted sea were transformed by the tainted water. Then caught and eaten, spreading the sickness—that was why lunatics showed up at the piers.

Those crazed, biting men noted in Father Ye’s notebook were, in fact, mutant infected!

[IAmYourDad: The polluted seawater is the real source of infection!!!]

[IAmYourDad: The polluted seawater is the real source of infection!!!]

[IAmYourDad: The polluted seawater is the real source of infection!!!]

Ye Shu’s barrage of comments dominated the screen.

[Ding! Congratulations, player Ye Shu, for uncovering 50% of the truth. Progress bar unlocked: 100% completion rewards—Constitution +10, Strength +10, Agility +10.]

The game's notification chimed—her theory was correct.

The other players, no fools themselves, read her comment with growing solemnity. All this time, they thought the strange sashimi was to blame for the transformation of humans into monsters.

But now, perhaps not.

Maybe this “IAmYourDad” was onto something…

Though, wasn’t that username oddly familiar?

Chen Meng’s face was alight with excitement. She exclaimed, ‘Captain Li, that’s the top-ranked player, IAmYourDad!’

Li Dahai, hearing this, quickly pulled up the leaderboard beneath the holographic screen.

Sure enough, there it was, gilded in shining gold—‘IAmYourDad.’

………………

Ye Shu had dispatched all the infected within five hundred meters, sweeping empty rooms clean of supplies. She had just dragged her haul back to her quarters when a knock sounded at the door.

‘Knock, knock, knock—’

‘Friend inside, the name’s Li Dahai. I mean no harm—we’re all survivors here.’

Ye Shu had no intention of responding. Bad men always insisted they meant well.

‘If you need anything, you’re welcome to join our Survivor’s Alliance.’

Li Dahai had led his team with the intent to clear out the nearby infected, but to their surprise, the area was spotless—not a single infected to be found.

Reasonable? Hardly. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire! They had scoured hundreds of rooms, never once spotting another survivor. Yet 9906 clearly didn’t look abandoned.

Li Dahai, seeing the door stubbornly shut, abandoned his efforts. Just as he turned to leave, the door creaked open. Ye Shu poked her head out halfway. ‘You said, what’s your name?’

‘Li Dahai. If you’ve nowhere else to go, little sister, the Survivors’ Alliance would welcome you. Newcomers get a cup of water and half a loaf of bread each day.’

Li Dahai rubbed his nose, eyes filled with a touch of surprise. He hadn’t expected the survivor to be an innocent young girl, all fair skin and unassuming charm.

Ye Shu recalled the name. Li Dahai—she’d seen him on Doujia, streaming for the public before the game started. An honest soul.

‘I’ll join.’

…………

Ye Shu followed Li Dahai. The team’s stronghold was Room 8801, as close to the deck as possible, with adjacent rooms used for storage and the crew’s daily rest.

Suddenly Ye Shu’s gaze landed on a certain man.

Chen Meng, noticing her new teammate’s pointed look, thought Ye Shu was struck by a crush, and leaned in to whisper, ‘We rescued him yesterday. He’s Lin Qingyue. But it’s strange… every time I look at him, something feels off.’

She left the last words trailing, half concealed.

The longer Ye Shu looked, the more familiar he seemed. Even the name rang a bell—then, in a flash, she remembered. Lin Qingyue was Lin Baozhu’s brother. But when she’d gone to see them last, Lin Qingyue was nowhere to be found. And now, here he was, out of nowhere. Too coincidental by half.

Besides, Lin Baozhu once said her brother was a fish enthusiast who ate piles of sashimi as soon as they boarded the ship. He ought to have become one of the infected!

Why, then, did this man stand before her, perfectly unharmed?

Could it be—he’d developed an immunity?

Out on the deck, Ye Shu didn’t notice Lin Qingyue approaching. Her head was lowered, eyes downcast, until a pair of polished shoes stopped before her. She flinched, and as she looked up, their faces almost brushed together—an intimate, electric collision.

Lin Qingyue himself bore no sign of recognition or tension. He even asked her about Lin Baozhu, his eyes black as starless night, drawing her in. Ye Shu blinked, unsettled, anxiety spiraling in her gut.

This Lin Qingyue was wrong—deeply, profoundly wrong!

She’d met him just a few times, but her impression had always been of a bashful, gentle soul. This was not the man standing before her.

‘Baozhu was taken away by Lin Tian. That’s all I know.’

No matter her unease, Ye Shu answered with as much candor as she could muster.

Her gaze flicked over him—skin pale as jade, unmarred by scars, clothes tattered as if he’d rolled through mud and water. The sense of eerie familiarity grew ever stronger.

She spread her hands, feigning ignorance, letting her fingertips brush against Lin Qingyue’s exposed skin—ice cold, utterly devoid of warmth. Like a block of ice.

For a split second, Ye Shu wondered if Lin Qingyue was not, in fact, an infected—one who had somehow retained his original appearance, rather than devolving into a grotesque monster.

‘You’re not Lin Qingyue. Who are you, really?—Mmmph!’

Lin Qingyue tilted his head, a sinister smile tugging at his lips. The breeze swept aside his hair, revealing the mole at the corner of his eye. Without a trace of mercy, he withdrew the knife he’d driven into Ye Shu’s abdomen—malice soaking the floor beneath. ‘Correct. Sadly, there’s no prize.’

Ye Shu tried to dodge, but she was a beat too slow.

She watched, dazed, as blood welled from the wound in her chest. Recognition dawned as she saw his distinctive beauty mark—this was the NPC ghost from the previous dungeon, returned to hunt her down…

Tears welled in Ye Shu’s eyes as she looked at the gash in her chest before collapsing, rigid, to the ground.