Chapter 12 The Tide of Fire

Seeing Jiang Cheng agree so readily, the fat man was dumbfounded. "Doctor," he stammered, "what's the second option...?"

"We stay here and wait and see," Jiang Cheng said.

"Phew..." The fat man breathed a sigh of relief. He thought he was going to be tricked by the doctor again.

"After those things in Heishi Town show up tonight, you go and meet them, sound them out," Jiang Cheng said, looking out the window, full of encouragement. "Since the mission is almost over, I think there will be many abnormalities on them. You go for a walk around the town and come back and tell me."

The fat man was dumbfounded. After a long while, he exclaimed, "Go alone?"

"Nonsense," Jiang Cheng said. "It's so dangerous, you still want to drag me along? Do you have any conscience?"

And so, the two of them lit torches, took a few spares, and prepared to go downstairs to wait. Of course, this time they didn't use the white grease from before.

Originally, the fat man had hoped that Heishi Town on the sea wouldn't reappear after dark, but reality quickly slapped him in the face. Not only did the brightly lit town appear, but...

They came out in full force.

A tide-like army composed of countless torches began to march towards them.

Roughly estimated, there were probably no less than several hundred people.

The entire Heishi Town was in a frenzy.

It seemed their guess was correct. Those not-quite-human, not-quite-fish monsters could indeed sense something happening on their side. The only question was, through what perspective?

Was it triggering the stone plate, or the old woman beside them?

"Doctor," the fat man said with a mournful face, "it's not that I'm heartless, but if we go down to meet those things, it's probably a dead end. We might as well just..."

"Then... you do it?"

"Doctor, I can't. Don't force me," the fat man was almost crying. On one side was a tide of monsters wearing human skin, and on the other was... was the monster itself.

This multiple-choice question was too difficult for him.

Jiang Cheng took a deep breath, looked at the torches surging on the dark sea, and said slowly, "Trust me one last time. Come down with me. There are still some things I need to confirm."

"Doctor, this time is different from before. If... if we're wrong, it'll really be the last time."

"I know."

Seeing the doctor's persistence, the fat man had nothing more to say. If it was really as the doctor said, and he could easily deal with Chen Ran, then with the doctor's combat index, he might even be able to fight some of the smaller fish-men.

Thinking like this, the fat man felt strangely at ease.

"Doctor," the fat man said, pointing vaguely at the old woman huddled in the corner, grinning at them, "are we... just leaving her here like this?"

After realizing that the old woman was staring at him, the fat man immediately retracted his finger, as if afraid of being bitten.

Jiang Cheng thought for a while. "Tie her up."

After tying the old woman up securely and stuffing her into the wood basket, the two left together.

While assisting the doctor, the fat man inadvertently touched the old woman's abdomen and found it bulging. He was so frightened that he immediately retracted his hand, his face changed.

Holding torches, the two walked down the stairs. The fat man took advantage of the last opportunity to ask the doctor many questions.

For example, what he thought of Heishi Town...

The doctor's answer was that Heishi Town should be real, but not on the sea, but at the bottom of the sea.

It only strangely floats to the surface at night. The town engulfed by the seawater seen near the stone plate is how it happens.

Those ugly monsters use the undersea Heishi Town as their base to attack ships that accidentally pass by. Because their methods are cruel, there are almost no survivors, so... their secrets have been buried until now.

Of course, it can't be ruled out that some large organizations know about this place, but they only know that there is something strange here, and ships often have accidents nearby.

"So that means, they appear as monsters in the eyes of those people?" the fat man asked.

"It should be."

"Then how are they..."

"How are they people?" Jiang Cheng glanced at him.

"Yes."

"It's still that saying, the rules limit us. We can't see through their identities, otherwise how would they confuse us?" Jiang Cheng said, holding up the torch, answering very naturally.

"But this... is too unfair to us," the fat man said worriedly. "The advantages are all in the hands of the other party. We, as those selected to enter this world as participants, have almost no advantages. Even if we can get life-saving white paper or clue newspapers, it takes a lot of effort, and you have to prioritize ensuring that you can survive the first mission."

"Two points," Jiang Cheng's tone suddenly became a little stiff. "Fatty, why don't you understand? The rules are not only for us, but everything in this mission, even the mission world, must follow the rules here."

"I ask you," he made a turn, trying to keep his body close to the wall, "in reality, what would happen if those monsters in Heishi Town saw people?"

The fat man answered without thinking, "Drag them away and eat their flesh."

"But when they see us, it's not like that, at least not at first," Jiang Cheng said. "They even invite us to eat meat, and explain the curse and the ins and outs of their experiences."

"Of course," he added, "it's also true that they didn't tell the truth."

"You can understand it as we are experiencing a highly realistic role-playing game. Everyone has a role to play, and we can only act within the rules of the role, whether it's us or other things in the script."

"And there's one more thing," Jiang Cheng stopped and turned to look at the fat man, Jiang Cheng lowered the torch in his hand, making his face blurred.

For a moment, it actually made the fat man feel strange.

"If there were no restrictions on the rules, do you think... we could possibly overcome those strange things?" Jiang Cheng asked calmly.

This seemingly inconspicuous sentence really hit the weakest part of the fat man's heart.

The family of four who enjoyed imprisonment and abuse in the first copy, the girl with the twisted jaw in the second campus, and... the man-eating, huge monster attached to the person that appeared in this copy.

In the absence of rules, these things are completely irresistible, even incomprehensible.

Even if you are smart and witty, these things cannot be confronted.

Their existence itself is a challenge to existing human cognition and theoretical foundations.

"So..." The fat man's eyes widened, and his breathing became uncontrollably rapid. "Those rules... are actually... actually set up to protect us?!"

Jiang Cheng turned and went downstairs.