Chapter 299

Chapter 299: Chapter 296: "Yate Vessel, It’s My ShipAt this time, the dawn had just risen, rendering the water city sparklingly brilliant, its pavements glittering like diamonds from the residual water.

Lu Shu, standing in the sunlight, still bore the scent of blood that he had carried over from the night.

"If you are a traveler from outside, then you should prepare to leave as soon as possible. Once Maritime Banquet is held after seven days, the entire Pulaya will transform into a wild slaughterhouse, a festive chaos that might even affect the locals..." The proprietress’s attitude seemed a bit too enthusiastic as she spoke, moving closer to Lu Shu who stood at the counter, almost as if she wanted to embrace him.

Lu Shu slightly frowned.

"I’ve experienced the chaos of the night," he said, "The Soul Clan is too rampant... This city’s Soul Hunters seem to be few..."

"That’s right," the proprietress moved closer, "The only Deity in the city in the clouds bestows upon the Hunters tremendous strength, enabling them to subdue those races that cause nighttime disturbances. But the Soul Clan in Pulaya has been rampant for far too long, their numbers too great to estimate... Even with the repression of the Soul Hunters, they keep returning like vile cockroaches and rats..."

She sighed, continuing, "So, traveler, it’s best if you stay in your troupe’s room at night, do not venture out heedlessly, this is my advice to you, Duoya... It’s rare to see an outsider as clean-cut as you, I truly don’t want to see you die at the hands of those murderers..."

Lu Shu opened the map of Pulaya in his hands, beginning to study where the registration point for Soul Hunters was located.

At that moment, however, the proprietress, as if seizing an opportunity, came around from behind the counter, looking as though she was about to get handsy with him...

"Mil!"

Suddenly, a female voice called out loudly from the side, and the proprietress, startled, quickly retracted her inappropriate hands.

The one who had shouted was a girl with her head wrapped in a turban, her black hair cascading down; she was sitting on a white boat, slowly approaching from the end of the waterway.

"Mil, I’ve found the registration point for the Soul Hunt. As long as the strength is adequate and the identity checks out, we can join the Soul Hunter Faction. From what I’ve seen, there are quite a few Players registering, and since it’s unclear as to how to join the Soul Clan Faction, Players can only start from the Soul Hunter Faction..." The girl spoke as she stood up from the boat.

"Lin Yin?" Lu Shu was startled.

The girl frowned, "Don’t call me Lin Yin, call me by my role’s name Nata, not my real name. What if other Players hear? Just like how you now addressed me as Lu Shu, others will know Su Ming’an is in this instance, aren’t you putting people in jeopardy?"

Lu Shu realized this point immediately and began rolling up the map in his hands.

He stepped onto the girl’s boat and bid the proprietress farewell:

"Thank you for answering my questions," he said, "I’ll be going now."

His tone of gratitude was brusque, his expression wooden, as though discarding used goods—the semblance of appreciation almost nonexistent.

The proprietress heard this and merely smiled faintly.

"So, he is someone else’s young man." She chuckled, glancing at Lin Yin beside him, her gesture full of allure as she waved goodbye, "It seems Duoya misjudged today; no matter, occasionally answering questions from an attached young man can be quite charming..."

Her words were flippant and bold, filled with a teasing air, causing Lin Yin beside her to furrow her brows.

Since the activation of the replica, she had felt that the city’s people were very unrestrained, with some residents behaving as if they fell in love with everyone they saw, teasing every foreigner they met. She had not expected Lu Shu to suffer harassment as well.

She quickly lifted the paddle and began rowing swiftly.

As the boat cut through the water, ripples trailed behind it. The white boat gently parted the mirror-like surface of the water, and soon they left the sight of the proprietress Duoya, reaching the other side of the waterway.

Lu Shu sat down properly in the boat, reopening his map.

The dawn light illuminated the yellowing map before him, its crisscrossed waterway markers resembling vast spider webs that completely enveloped the whole of Pulaya.

In this instance, Lu Shu began in Maritime City Pulaya as a traveler from another country seeking treasure. Lin Yin’s role was that of a local resident, the daughter of a blacksmith from a smithy.

As for the other teammates, they were still in the process of reaching out, considering the second day had just dawned, and the team chat channel had just been unblocked.

The previous day had been the first day of the replica’s opening, and Lu Shu promptly spent half a day touring Pulaya, trying to understand the situation of this maritime city.

Just as Duoya said, the city was peaceful by day, like a serene water town at peace with the world; yet at night, it was a paradise for sin.

Soul Clan members swarmed the night, and hunters raised their guns amidst the struggle. Innocents, criminals, hunters...countless people would face the challenge of life and death as night fell.

He had experienced such a crisis of the city last night. As soon as he had met up with Lin Yin, they were targeted by members of the Soul Clan, but they managed to defeat them.

From that battle, Lv Shu learned that the Soul Clan was actually not weak, comparable to a minor boss, with combat power ranging from four hundred to over a thousand. At least the average player definitely would not have the ability to fight back. Players needed to form a small team to be able to stand against a regular member of the Soul Clan.

And on the eighth day of the instance activation, there would even be a PvP event called "Maritime Banquet" where the victors could obtain a pass to the city in the clouds...

"We’ll head to the nearest hunter’s guild registration point now to get the hunter’s medal, and hunt the Soul Clan at night to earn points," Lin Yin rowed in front, and her voice drifted over with the warm breeze:

"So far, there has been no news of players possessing members of the Soul Clan. It seems that most players are either locals or outsiders visiting. I heard that about a few hundred players started on a huge ship named ’Yate Vessel’ and they are still on their way here..."

Lv Shu listened to her as he watched the scenery by the boat.

The weather in Pulaya was somewhat hot, the air was humid and warm, and seemed to carry a trace of the blood scent left over from the night.

Immaculate buildings slowly passed by his eyes and, following the horizon dotted with white clouds, he could see the endless blue sea in the distance. People of all shapes and colors shuttled through the harbor, while carts loaded with goods crossed into his line of sight.

Waves washed the blood that accidentally stained some of the buildings, and desiccated corpses were hastily dragged away. After the bloodstains were cleaned, the buildings looked as if they had just been erected, as if they were washed by seawater, and nothing had ever happened.

...What a strange city.

"We are now in west Pulaya. Noel just got back to me; he’s in the east end of the city, said he ran into Mo Wen..."

Lin Yin spoke, then suddenly turned back: "Why the distraction? What are you thinking about?"

Lv Shu rolled up the map in his hands.

"There’s still no news from Su Ming’an..."

"You shouldn’t worry about him," Lin Yin laughed. "Even if something happened to our whole team, he would be fine. If he hasn’t contacted us yet, he’s probably just too busy and hasn’t had time to respond, especially since the chat channel has just been unblocked."

"Right."

Lv Shu nodded.

On the bottom left of his field of vision, the chat in the newly unblocked instance channel was already exploding. Players who had just experienced a night in the Underworld were beginning to complain and vent about this city that seemed like Paradise.

Currently, the players were adapting quite well.

Perhaps it was because without comparison there was no harm felt, but for the players who experienced the entirety of the Sixth World as the Underworld, the Seventh World being the Underworld only at night was already something they could accept.

They even played with the chat channel as if it were the world chat in a game and began to form teams using game terminology. Since most of the players belonged to the Soul Hunter Faction, many of them could even form temporary teams. As long as things hadn’t escalated to overt conflict, players were often willing to falsely cooperate with each other.

Lv Shu observed the chat when suddenly he heard a "ding dong" sound.

This is a prompt from the team chat channel.

He quickly clicked on the channel.

The channel chat had started at six in the morning, and there were a few messages they had just sent. The names were followed by the specific time the messages were sent.

The messages ended there.

More than an hour had passed since a new message arrived.

The sudden "ding-dong" sound instantly caught the attention of the four people.

There is a certain loading time for sending messages, which prevents some things from being communicated right away. During the waiting period to load the messages, the four were somewhat expectant.

"Finally replied," Lin Yin breathed a sigh of relief seeing who sent the message, "This reply is really late. What big thing is he up to?"

Lv Shu did not speak. He looked at the message and immediately started typing.

"Ding-dong!"

A moment later, a new message appeared:

Lv Shu, watching the messages flood in, also wanted to send some greetings but noticed that Su Ming’an wasn’t replying again.

"What’s he doing, being so busy?" Lin Yin laughed as she spoke ahead, "Let me guess... Hmm, he wouldn’t be planning to capsize the whole ship, would he? Sounds like his style."

"Unlikely," Lv Shu said.

"Oh? What do you think he’s busy with, then?"

"He probably..." Lv Shu thought for a moment, "is persuading the upper class nobles on the ship, trying to gain benefits through NPCs, like that."

As he spoke, another series of "ding-dong" sounds could be heard.

Messages in the team chat channel kept refreshing upwards.

"Ding-dong!"

"Ding-dong!"

"Ding-dong!"

"Ding-dong!"

"Ding-dong!"

"Whoosh——"

Amidst the torrential downpour, the Yate Vessel swayed like a paper boat in the waves.

Blazing white lightning bolts, like long swords, slashed down from the sky, bringing intense bursts of thunder.

The black-haired young man in a raincoat approached the rail, looking down at the surging waves below.

Behind him, lifeboats were being transported one by one, people’s faces etched with panic, negative emotions rapidly spreading across the deck.

"Lord Puler died at dawn... killed by a Soul Clan attack..."

"What do we do, what do we do, the Soul Hunter lords are dead, what are we people to do..."

"Don’t panic! Don’t panic, let’s get the lifeboats organized first, there are still two Soul Hunter lords alive. During the day, the Soul Clan wouldn’t dare to roam freely..."

The panicked voices of the people rang out on the heavily rain-stricken deck.

Su Ming’an walked away from the rail, entering indoors.

He took off his raincoat, moving against the frantic downward flow of people, pushing through like parting the waves, all the way up against the current.