Chapter 111: Lord of the Deep Sea
Translated by Karai of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Addis
Once the server-wide announcement was made, it immediately caused a stir in the Celestial Horizon Global Channel. Originally, Celestial Horizon had a Global Boss system, but after the challenging quests of “the Apocalypse” were introduced, the appeal of Global Boss gameplay dimmed. Moreover, with the recent faction wars adjustments, the Global Boss gameplay was temporarily suspended.
Initially, players didn’t pay much attention to it, as game updates and changes were rapid, and Global Boss events had been overshadowed by newer features. However, suddenly, a dazzling golden server-wide announcement appeared before the online players.
Those who had fought Global Bosses knew the drill: these types of bosses would appear in specific areas of the map, refresh at scheduled times, and had no restrictions on the number of participants or guilds. After the boss’s health was depleted, rewards would be distributed based on the players’ performance. Generally, participation alone guaranteed a basic reward, with better rewards based on higher performance metrics.
Of course, there’s also loot drop rewards from the boss.
Global Bosses drop special treasure chests containing extremely rare materials/items. In the past Celestial Horizon gameplay, the rewards from Global Boss chests were equivalent to 3-4 star quest rewards. Each time, about 10 chests would drop, depending on the final stage of the kill.
However, this is the updated Global Boss gameplay. This boss called “Lord of the Deep Sea” had never appeared in the previous Global Boss gameplay.
“Damn, did you check the drops?”
“I did!! The boss database just updated information on [Lord of the Deep Sea]. Wow, this boss drops 4-star rewards 100% of the time, 5-star rewards 50% of the time, and 6-star rewards 10% of the time!!!”
The loot from the new Global Boss [Lord of the Deep Sea] ranged from basic 4-star quest challenge chests, and with good luck, could potentially drop 5-star or even 6-star rewards.
“Wow, is it really this rich?!”
“Why are you still here? Hurry up and go grab the boss!!”
“A lot of elite teams from various guilds have already gone!”
Normally, in collective battles, all players have a chance to receive rewards, but for these final-stage kill loot chests, historically, they’ve been fiercely contested by large guilds. Some guild alliances even divide areas to snatch bosses. Whenever a Global Boss appears, it’s a brutal battle among guilds.
The guild channel of the Fruit Gang instantly exploded. The Eastern Sea, well, it’s their Fruit Gang’s stronghold nearby. With a stronghold, it means they can run directly from the guild’s base to the Eastern Sea stronghold. They are the fastest-moving guild for this operation.
“This is our chance!!”
“I’ve teleported over, invite me into the group!”
“Today, are we transporting materials? Vice Leader is over there.”
“Watermelon, hold on, we’re coming right away to take down the boss.”
Watermelon immediately bombarded the management group of the Fruit Gang and continued, “Banana, transport guild resources back. The rest of you, come with me to assess the situation below. We have tanks; let’s try to grab aggro from the Global Boss as soon as possible!”
The warrior of the highly anticipated Fruit Gang transport team was dumbfounded upon hearing this. “But Vice Leader, CloudTraveller is down there! I definitely can’t compete with him for aggro.”
Watermelon: “… Can’t you have a little spirit?!”
The warrior, uneasy: “I can’t do it!”
“Vice Leader, it’s coming towards us!”
“Why does this feel off? Shouldn’t the Global Boss be stationary? How did this giant octopus get onto land?!”
“It’s charging, it’s charging! Damn, this boss is fierce, heading straight for the small fishing village.”
Upon hearing this, Watermelon immediately looked towards the Lord of the Deep Sea. He switched his target to lock onto the boss and realized that the boss’s target wasn’t other players but their own stronghold monument.
He had a bad feeling —
Could this boss possibly be aiming to seize their stronghold resources?!
The Eastern Sea Small Fishing Village, the closest place to the Global Boss Lord of the Deep Sea.
At the moment the announcement popped up, CloudTraveller immediately joined Yu Zhen’s team along with Watermelon, SaltyFish, and Goose. The four of them rushed towards the Global Boss without delay.
“You guessed it right, this quest is indeed linked to special gameplay. Just didn’t expect the mainframe to release the Global Boss so quickly,” Yu Zhen frowned slightly. “Checked the database, only the drops are announced, all skills are unknown.”
CloudTraveller added, “There’s a chance of dropping 6-star rewards. The difficulty of this boss should be no less than 6 stars, possibly even higher.”
Normally, for Global Bosses, the official announcement would list the names of the boss’s skills. But for this boss, let alone skill names, even its level and difficulty were unknown.
“Did you notify the guild?” Yu Zhen asked.
CloudTraveller responded immediately, “I notified them, but it might take some time for them to arrive. Teleporting here takes time… The guild stronghold in Vicinity should be controlled by the Fruit Gang. I’ll contact Bitter Melon right away.”
“No…,” Yu Zhen noticed that under the boss’s health bar, a new target was suddenly locked. “It’s locking onto the Eastern Sea stronghold monument. Quickly, draw its aggro.”
CloudTraveller quickly grasped the situation, “Trouble incoming.”
He immediately activated his status, “Healers, keep an eye on my health. We’re drawing aggro.”
***
[Duration of Night: 01:01:22]
“Wait, was that just the Global Boss?”
“Be confident, that was definitely the Global Boss.”
“Damn, bro, you triggered the Global Boss with that totem you touched.”
“I wish I could touch it too. I’ve never had a shout-out in the global announcement before.”
After realizing that they might be trapped in the scenario themselves, the other members of the seven-person team finally noticed various eerie occurrences during the night. For instance, emails sent out seemed to vanish without a trace, and channels like Global and guild hadn’t refreshed messages in a long time… Originally focused on avoiding the fish monsters, they suddenly realized they were disconnected from the entire Global.
“We could communicate externally before, but now it seems like everything’s blocked. I can’t use external communication,” ScarletFruit realized the issue. “It seems like we’ve been disconnected since the night began.”
“Not ‘seems like’, you can be sure of it.”
Su Mo wiped the dust off the glowing blue stone platform and continued, “This night is not simple, and neither is the quest in the East Sea Fishing Village. We need to find a way to quickly remove the conditions from those three, otherwise, forget about fighting the boss, we won’t even be able to get out of this cave.”
The totem on the gray-green stone platform depicted a giant sea monster, presumably the “Lord of the Deep Sea” mentioned in the recent announcement. Judging from the current situation, the team’s quest was likely not just any ordinary 5-star quest but rather a prerequisite for the Global Boss Lord of the Deep Sea.
“But we don’t even know what conditions they’re under. How are we supposed to resolve this?” ChatMasterWu couldn’t help but ask, “We need to know what poison we’re dealing with if we’re going to detoxify them.”
Su Mo glanced around and asked, “Did Fruit bring the Illumination Scrolls?”
“Yeah, I brought them,” ScarletFruit took out a few, “Bro, where should I use them?”
Su Mo instructed, “Use them in the bone pile. We’re going down. Fruit, stay up here and keep watch.”
ScarletFruit looked puzzled but nodded.
After securing the rope above, Su Mo jumped down into the bone sea below. It was deeper than expected. Using the rope to navigate through the bone sea, he felt the mountain wall and said, “There are inscriptions on the wall down here. Come down and take a look.”
ZenSlasher followed suit and jumped down using the same method, asking, “What kind of script is it?”
Su Mo queried, “Ancient Chinese script. Can you read it?”
ZenSlasher replied, “I understand a bit. I’ll help you find the inscriptions.”
The mountain wall indeed had inscriptions, but they were completely disjointed, with different handwriting and scattered positions. It seemed these were words carved by these corpses before they died. In the end, they spent time finding all the inscriptions on the mountain wall. There weren’t many, but they managed to determine three pieces of information.
- These people came from afar in search of opportunities in the small fishing village. They were eventually surrounded by undying fish monsters, trapped in the cave, and died.
- The opportunities in the small fishing village are deceptive; not all the NPC’s words may be true.
- There are special monsters on the island that secrete a liquid that induces paralysis. Eventually, the paralysis can become irreversible, and there’s no cure.
“Most of them were probably trapped by this condition and eventually worn down to death here,” Su Mo said after reading, pausing briefly. “Right now, they’re just in a paralyzed state. Once it triggers, there’s a good chance even Fruit won’t be able to save them.”
ClearWind asked, “Am I going to die young?”
ScarletFruit queried, “If they die, can we still resurrect them?”
Su Mo replied hesitantly, “… It’s not certain.”
Apple said, “But didn’t you say there’s no cure?”
Su Mo replied, “Right now you’re paralyzed, theoretically unable to move. If that’s the case, then who carved these words on the wall? We haven’t seen any other corpses along the way, so who stacked these bones here?”
With these words, everyone else was also momentarily stunned.
Their attention had been entirely focused on the information they had acquired, without considering who might have left it behind.
“There are two possibilities. One is that these messages were left by the owners of the corpses themselves. The other possibility is that someone else wrote them to make whoever sees the messages give up, believing there’s no cure for this condition.”
Su Mo paused briefly, then continued, “I think both possibilities exist. In other words, some of the information we’ve received is true, and some is false. However, there’s a contradiction. Regardless of its authenticity, the variety of handwriting styles suggests that some of these people should have been able to move later on, hence their ability to carve these words.”
“Poisoned and left here, then able to move later—regardless of the intent behind it, this ultimately confirms one thing,” Su Mo said succinctly. “That is, there must be a way to detoxify in this Vicinity that can enable us to move, indicating we’re not at the point of no return.”
Apple was slightly puzzled and asked, “Why not consider the intent?”
“Not all information is useful. We’re on a mission, not playing a deduction game. The complete truth will be revealed in the end, and our current task is to survive the night,” Su Mo continued. “Ultimately, it’s about starting from our needs. Right now, what we want to know is how to detoxify, so we need to gather the information we want from the environment.”
ScarletFruit understood, “So we shouldn’t consider anything else. These people could carve because they could move, and if they could move, it means there’s a way in this Vicinity to make them move.”
Su Mo nodded, “More or less.”
ChatMasterWu, who had been listening for a while without understanding, asked, “So what do we do now? Are you saying there’s a detox method in Vicinity, and we need to find it?”
“Over here,” ZenSlasher suddenly discovered something suspicious on the stone wall of the Vicinity, calling out, “There’s an opening here, but it’s blocked.”
Upon hearing ZenSlasher’s voice, Su Mo leaned against the wall and approached the spot. When he arrived, he saw the blocked opening ZenSlasher had mentioned. The cave interior was dark, the opening very small, blocked by a huge rock and covered with other bones. It was not easily noticeable without careful inspection. He attempted to push it with his hands but couldn’t budge it. He said, “We need to break the rock open.”
The two assassins worked together and quickly smashed the edges of the stone, releasing a foul smell from inside. Su Mo furrowed his brow slightly, “Keep going, don’t stop.”
ZenSlasher and ChatMasterWu continued their efforts. ScarletFruit, who stood on top, looked down with interest. Because they were using the Vicinity channel, their positions were farther away, making it difficult to hear clearly what the others below were saying.
ClearWind couldn’t see and had to ask, “What are they doing?”
ScarletFruit replied, “They’re probably digging a hole. We might have to dig a tunnel to get out.”
The hole soon opened up to about half a meter in size. Su Mo threw a scroll inside, but there was no other sound. He crawled into the hole and after a few steps, he found himself stepping into water. He lowered his head slightly, examined the scroll, and realized that the entrance to this hole unexpectedly led to a small seawater pool, likely connected to the outside sea area.
As he saw this, Su Mo paused briefly, then used the Illumination Scroll to shine light on the surrounding stone walls. He immediately realized, “I think I know.”
ChatMasterWu, who was guarding the entrance, asked, “Huh?”
He didn’t quite understand. What did Su Mo figure out now?
***
The East Sea, originally a peaceful fishing village, was now bustling with people. Players who had come eagerly to attack the Global Boss, elite teams from various guilds assembled, surrounding the village completely. Despite this situation, the Lord of the Deep Sea that had come ashore continued to advance without any pause.
The Lord of the Deep Sea locked onto the current main tank, CloudTraveller, sweeping its tentacles to flatten the surrounding buildings. The booming sound persisted as it pushed forward, forcing nearby players to retreat. Up to now, this boss had only used two moves: one sweeping attack that effortlessly sent players flying, and another where it spat ink to instantly paralyze players in the vicinity for 30 minutes, rendering them instantly combat ineffective.
“This monster is out of line. Isn’t this supposed to be a safe zone in the small fishing village? How can it come over here?”
“Damn, can this monster enter the safe zone?”
“Forget about killing it, its health hasn’t even dropped below 99% after all this time. Just 1%?”
“So many people have died!”
“Many guilds have come. We’ll follow them and attack later.”
“Why haven’t they started fighting yet?”
There were quite a few guilds preparing to snatch the Global Boss. Zenith Expanse, Veiled Cloud Sanctuary, Temple of the Gods, Ren Xiaoyao, Fruit Platter… The big guilds on the list had all arrived. However, they were just observing the situation from a distance, eyeing each other with hostility.
The first array master, Midnight Bell, stood on a high ground, his gaze fixed in the distance. On a similar high ground stood a graceful figure in white robes—BrokenOracle. Many had come, but the incident had happened suddenly, and the elite teams of the major guilds were not fully assembled yet. Besides Zenith Expanse, the guild with the most people currently was [Ren Xiaoyao], led by BrokenOracle.
Sleep said, “The elite team from Veiled Cloud Sanctuary hasn’t arrived yet. If we want to snatch it, we still have a chance to take it from CloudTraveller, but it’s hard to say if BrokenOracle will intervene.”
MidnightBell hesitated, “Something’s not right. The East Sea stronghold is in the hands of Fruit Platter. How come only these people from their elite team have come? Isn’t Watermelon online? Isn’t he there?”
“He did… They were the first to arrive,” sleep said with a strange expression, pointing towards a nearby mountain from their position. “But after they arrived, they suddenly left.”
MidnightBell asked, “Why?”
“They didn’t engage the boss. Instead, they were… transporting resources within the East Sea stronghold.”
Inside the East Sea stronghold, Watermelon ended the voice chat with UnchainedWanderer and directed two elite teams, “Hurry up, quickly move all the resources.”
Watermelon had initially led his elite team to the scene to prepare for the boss fight. However, upon meeting his friends CloudTraveller and UnchainedWanderer, he was suddenly informed that the Global Boss might be targeting their resource stronghold. After a quick glance at the boss, he immediately changed his plans.
Now, the boss’s target of aggression was CloudTraveller. However, considering the boss’s direction was towards their resource stronghold, they couldn’t believe it had no interest in the stronghold. They knew that while they might not necessarily lose the Global Boss, losing the resources in the East Sea stronghold would mean significant losses for them.
Strawberry, who hurriedly brought the elite team as porters, asked, “Boss, are we leaving nothing behind? If we empty it, we might not have enough resources for guild battles later.”
Watermelon shook his head and said, “Nothing left, leaving anything behind would just feed the octopus.”
“Its target really is the resources? If there are no resources here, will it change its course?”
“Whose stronghold is next?”
“The closest one is Sunset City’s Vicinity, belonging to Zenith Expanse.”
Watermelon also pitched in to help move resources and asked, “Where’s BitterMelon? Wasn’t he just here?”
“The leader, he went down with the deputy leader to buy us time, to face off with that octopus.”
Author’s note:
Watermelon: Stealing is shameful!
Thanks for the chapter!