Survival. Ocean (Playwright) Chapter One Hundred and Fourth: Boss Wu

Wu Hui now understood why so many slaves seem so grateful for the very masters who oppressed them. Even though he had taken plenty of advantages from Wang Xiaodie, her affection for him kept climbing all the time.

That was Stockholm syndrome, after all. Or, in more plain terms, being a willing, doting M.

"What is that look?" Wang Xiaodie muttered as she leaned over him and then lay down beside him.

She quickly came back again. "Wait—why is it so cool over here? Master, what good thing did you find again?"

Their route was clearly through subtropical waters, and the heat was still intense. Wang Xiaodie had been complaining about the weather every day, and then she suddenly came across a man-shaped air conditioner in Wu Hui, and without a trace of resistance she leaned in against him.

Of course, part of it was because she had almost no resistance in front of him to begin with. She even started calling him Master just to steal a bit of cool air.

"Keep scouting," Wu Hui said calmly. The last person who had moved in close to him like Wang Xiaodie, for the sake of that human-made air-conditioning, was Li Xiaoyue.

When Xiaoyue appeared, Li Xiaojing followed right behind her. The two twins together had a way of hugging him that felt surprisingly good. Besides, both of them had a charm level of nine, just a little higher than Wang Xiaodie.

Lost in thought, Wu Hui spoke little for a long while. Wang Xiaodie was delighted, happily grazing his cold air side by side.

"Are we leaving already?"

The next evening, Wang Xiaodie returned with materials and brewed a bottle of Eagle-Eye Elixir for Wu Hui; then the two packed their supplies and prepared to depart. That day, the tugboat Wu Hui had made for Bear and Beetle was also ready.

When Zhang Dingyang asked beside him, Wu Hui nodded. "Yeah, if we get another chance, we can work together."

He had a good impression of Zhang Dingyang. They had met a number of players in the game, and among them, aside from Du Zhiming—who he preferred not to mention—there were only two who, though not close to him, had won his approval.

One was Zhao Xingluan, whom he had run into during that earlier Deathmatch in the Empty Tower, and the other was this Zhang Dingyang.

When he said there would be a chance to cooperate, he didn’t mean it just to sound pleasant. He truly wished Zhang Dingyang to be his opponent instead of his teammate. In terms of pure intellect, he could dominate Zhang, but the fellow’s courage, and that rough-and-fine temperament, made a hands-on fight with him feel like unnecessary trouble.

"A chance to cooperate." Compared with Wu Hui’s precise judgment, Zhang saw Wu Hui as only three words:

unreadable.

No matter the moment, this man had no expression at all, as if he were moving through everything with effortless ease. It was as though he had prepared for every possible situation.

So far, Zhang Dingyang had never even seen Wu Hui get injured, not even once struck.

The raft set off again, much slower now.

After all, there was an extra platform at the back reserved for carrying animals.

Wu Hui added another foam box for raising wild greens. The things in it matured slowly, and as for replenishing vitamins, nothing beat plucking fruit on shore.

Still, this was one of Wu Hui’s several backup plans.

Wang Xiaodie seemed in a wonderfully good mood. "The gold is all sorted. We only need two more vials of elixir. Along the road ahead, I can just knock together a few and that’ll be enough."

She was suddenly full of motivation to do unpaid work for Wu Hui.

Wu Hui suddenly remembered a self-help book he had once read—a book on building proper values and not falling into other people’s traps by rejoicing after giving too much.

Now he was using those same principles in reverse, making Wang Xiaodie work for him and be happy about it as if she had just found loose change.

Of course, Wu Hui had not done this on purpose.

Wang had some streak of self-advancement in her, which included that rising affection as well. He couldn’t imagine when she would eventually see what an absurd direction her heart was taking.

His subordinates worked hard while he did not interfere. Passing around an empty raft by the side of an island, Wu Hui did not hesitate: he boarded it and selected a few supplies to take.

He stepped onto the sea where the surface gave way to floating ice. In the dusk, the afterglow of sunset scattered across the water, and his tall silhouette looked elegant and carefree.

Watching his back, Wang Xiaodie said, "Huh, you do look quite handsome."

On the boat, the bear that had just returned from foraging on the island lay motionless. For the moment it did not even know it would be hungry for ten days, maybe two weeks. It wore a thick, innocent look.

Living in the subtropics, it had never once experienced the hard, hungry stretch of winter torpor.

It would have to get used to that now.

But with a slave contract in place, once Wu Hui gave a command, even the grizzly did not have the right to cry out in hunger. Miserable, absolutely miserable.

The raft kept moving onward.

At night, Wang Xiaodie, who was on watch, began fishing. If nothing else remained to do, fishing could at least be called a job.

And besides fish, almost anything could be hauled up from these waters. Rotten shoes, a treasure chest, pearl oysters—you never knew how such things got snagged.

They could also pick up drifting bottles at sea. Wang had hauled up several. Tiny slips of paper inside were filled with all kinds of things, and now and then there were even elixir formulas.

Wu Hui checked every one of them. Of course, on idle daytime, Wang Xiaodie had looked through them too.

She couldn’t read the script, so she had him read them out loud. It was strange: the elixir recipes and the seals had translations, yet these tiny details could only be read with special items for players.

"Tomorrow should be the day for the Marked Warrior qualification test. I hope some drifting bottle will grant my wish and let me do well."

"I hope Melly accepts my confession at tomorrow’s university ball."

"Though putting my hopes in this is stupid, I truly have no idea what else to do. The Tombstone Project is in its fourth phase… I hope there’s still time."

From Wu Hui’s guess, writing a drifting bottle seemed to be like putting wishes on sky lanterns for people of this world. It was a superstitious ritual. The playwright had borrowed this custom to leak their world’s backstage story in fragments, little by little.

No purpose was ever made clear.

Even so, when the night was deep and still, Wang Xiaodie would still think about that hidden story. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine what civilization in this century might be like. But a pull on the fishing line dragged her back to the present.

She caught a book.

In the firelight, Wang Xiaodie discovered she could actually read it—and it was written in Chinese. It took her a heartbeat to realize that, then she gave a startled exclamation.

Its title was The Hundred Insects Manual.

At first glance, it seemed to be merely a guide to insects. In truth, it was still just an insect guide, though Wang Xiaodie still needed to study it more carefully.

But her shout succeeded in waking Wu Hui.

"What did you pull up this time?" He woke without the least annoyance. He simply glanced at a few extra clouds gathering overhead, then put on his glasses.

He froze for a moment too, when his eyes landed on the book.

"Scan failed."