Chapter 26: Rising Tide
“Bang—”
A harsh friction sound rang in his ears. Xiang Liangyu turned around and found Duan Sen supporting Miao Zhen, whose waist was covered in blood, and closed the door with a look of horror.
Xiang Liangyu asked in confusion: "What's wrong?"
Duan Sen pointed outside the door: "Outside, outside there is..."
Before he finished speaking, a dark shadow suddenly flashed outside the door and rushed straight into the iron door. The iron door, which had been in disrepair for a long time, could not withstand such a collision and soon made a sound similar to breaking.
Xiang Liangyu raised his lips: [The three-year high tide of Zero Island is coming soon. This high tide will last for six hours. Please choose high places and be careful of drowning. ]
[Congratulations to the player for unlocking the unknown creature "Tidebird". Its body with the shape of an eagle and duck feet allows it to be amphibious both on land and in the sea. The Tidebird's favorite thing is to swallow mermaids and sharks that jump out of the sea in excitement during high tide. Don't think its mouth is very small. If it is fully opened, it can swallow an eight-foot-tall human in one gulp.]
[Be careful, the Tidebird has a very big appetite. Due to the endangered mermaids, the Tidebird has not had a full meal for a long time. Fat humans are much more delicious than the flexible and rare mermaids in the sea. Please do not appear in the Tidebird's field of vision at close range, be careful that it will remember your scent and abandon mermaids to eat humans. ]
Duan Sen was already in a panic at this moment. Under Miao Zhen's guidance, he suddenly realized and locked the door.
When he looked at the wall beside Xiang Liangyu, his breathing suddenly stopped and he fell against the iron gate without any strength. The next moment, he felt a sharp pain in his back.
The bird in the tide had stretched out its sharp and thick beak from the gap in the railing and stabbed it fiercely into his back.
Duan Sen screamed and was supported by Miao Zhen to leave the iron gate. The wound was on his back, and Duan Sen could not touch the wound or treat it, so he could only press his body on Miao Zhen to get a chance to breathe.
When Duan Sen was frightened, Xiang Liangyu turned around to face the wall and found that the photo he had just seen was no longer the same as the one he had seen last time.
The original photo showed a closed iron cage with six doctors performing a cruel tail amputation on a mermaid, but this time, it was replaced with a human face.
The smooth black hair is straight on the side of the face, but it does not cover the cheeks, revealing a clear widow's peak. The three-dimensional and delicate bone structure makes the skin look even better and can stand up to scrutiny.
A pair of long and upturned eyes exuded coldness. Although the facial features were gentle and non-aggressive, under the pair of thick and bright eyes, the whole face was inexplicably tainted with a bit of evil.
When the people and the painting looked at each other, Xiang Liangyu felt a little creepy.
It doesn't look scary, but it appeared a little suddenly.
Xiang Liangyu inexplicably felt that he looked familiar, and a name suddenly popped up in his mind - Quan Shengyan.
Duan Sen saw Xiang Liangyu watching so intently that he couldn't help but take a breath and asked, "Don't you think this is scary?"
Xiang Liangyu looked at him blankly, then looked at the portrait, pointed at it and said uncertainly: "Horror? How handsome this is."
Duan Sen looked at the portrait again uncertainly. The abstract painting style was piled with thick and intense colors, the rough skin was covered with white fish scales, there was a weird smile, and the eyes were squinting at him . Although it was obviously a flat surface, he always had a feeling that the person inside was about to get out.
Duan Sen: “…”
handsome?
He thinks the system may be blind.
Miao Zhen pulled Duan Sen up the stone stairs. The iron gate looked precarious but was actually quite solid. The bird in the tide tried to knock it open a few times but failed, so it simply folded its wings and landed at the door, staring at every move of the players inside with wide eyes.
Miao Zhen supported Duan Sen while knocking on the wall: "The space, the space is wrong again. There must be an unknown area hidden here like the waiter's room. Chu Li and the others must have entered an unknown area by mistake."
He turned around and looked at Xiang Liangyu, who shrugged: "The unknown area requires all players to enter to trigger it. It will not be triggered if you are alone or in a team of three or two."
Miao Zhen pounded the wall fiercely: "Damn it! Duan Sen, let's go upstairs for treatment first."
The two people on the stairs have gone to the upper floor. The player's exploration level has not reached the standard, and the lantern on the top of the tower cannot be turned on. In other words, they have reached the end of the road.
Xiang Liangyu looked back at the iron gate, loosened the lock, and then before going upstairs, he hooked his finger at the bird outside the door.
The bird in the tide tilted its head and watched Xiang Liangyu leave, then hit the half-locked iron door with its body again.
Xiang Liangyu walked up to the top floor and was immediately dazzled by the portraits there. She didn't know if it was her illusion, but the portraits on this floor seemed a little unreal and changeable. But the only thing that was certain was that there was no obvious door-shaped exit here.
Miao Zhen had finished the treatment and was tearing off his clothes to give Duan Sen a simple bandage.
The sound of banging on the iron door became louder and louder. Miao Zhen stood in the corner and stared at the wall, while Duan Sen pounded on the wall like crazy.
Xiang Liangyu sat on the stairs, bored and gradually speechless.
I opened the gap big enough, but the bird couldn't get through it.
"There must be a hidden space here! There's no way the three of them could just disappear like that!"
Duan Sen kept knocking on the wall in search, but everywhere he knocked made a dull, solid sound.
Obviously, he wanted to use the method that Miao Zhen used to find the laboratory on the third floor in the guest house to find the hidden entrance.
But unfortunately, the only way to find the entrance is to collect four photo fragments first. They had already collected three, but were thrown into disarray by the disappearance of their companions. The fourth fragment was actually in the previous layer, among the fragments attached to the handsome face portrait. It could be found if you looked carefully.
Xiang Liangyu curled the corners of his mouth.
stupid.
Miao Zhen suddenly turned around and said to Duan Sen as he passed by: "I'll go down and take a look first. Don't walk around here."
Xiang Liangyu also wanted to follow, but was held tightly by Duan Sen: "Don't go, don't go."
Xiang Liangyu pretended: "I think you'd better go with us, just in case there's a ..."
Duan Sen immediately pulled Xiang Liangyu downstairs.
The two of them went downstairs one after the other. The stairs were covered with photos of the same color, blurring the boundaries. It was safe to go upstairs, but if they went downstairs, they would probably lose half their lives if they didn't stretch out their feet and try to walk first, not to mention that there was not even a handrail.
Looking down from the ladder, it looks like a blooming flower, dangerous and frightening.
Xiang Liangyu stared at the stone stairs under his feet and walked slowly, but his peripheral vision was on the trembling Duan Sen in front of him. After he tentatively went down a step, Xiang Liangyu suddenly said, "Duan Sen."
Duan Sen froze, without turning back: "What are you doing?"
"Bang--"
A sudden cry of surprise was heard, and Duan Sen immediately leaned against the wall, listening to the sound downstairs tremblingly.
Miao Zhen's voice appeared first, and he seemed to be running. At the same time, the sound of flapping wings rang out violently, and Duan Sen's face turned pale.
Xiang Liangyu: [Congratulations to the player for finding the key item "Damaged Photo" (4/4). This is a somewhat accomplished oceanographer who has an almost obsessive love for the ocean. When he successfully captured the first mermaid in human history, his research direction changed.]
[Progress of the side quest "Crazy Wish" (17/20), keep working hard~]
[Congratulations to the player for successfully collecting the photos scattered in the lighthouse and successfully unlocking the unknown area "Dark Tower" of "Lost Lighthouse". ]
[The Dark Tower has been opened, please be careful of anyone around you. ]
As soon as he finished speaking, Chu Li's curse suddenly rang out, nearby!
Xiang Liangyu pointed down: "Over there!"
Duan Sen was delighted and left the wall and came to Xiang Liangyu.
When Chu Li and others were ejected from the dark tower, they happened to block Miao Zhen. Qu Liuyun took out the iron rod he had looted from the dark tower, and when Miao Zhen was lying down, he swung the iron rod and hit the bird in the tide hard.
The bird in the tide fell to the ground and kept twitching. Qu Liuyun put the iron rod on his shoulder and kicked it down the stairs. Three seconds later, the sound of it falling to the ground echoed .
Miao Zhen got up from the ground and asked hurriedly: "How did you get into the secret passage?"
Jiang Yu patted the dust off his body and pointed at the portrait next to him: "When we were tearing the pieces, we touched this painting, and then we were sucked in."
Chu Li looked around: "Duan Senhe..."
Before she could finish her words, she suddenly caught a glimpse of a dark shadow descending. Chu Li's pupils suddenly shrank and she reacted quickly and rushed forward, trying to grab the rapidly falling Duan Sen.
Unfortunately, the fingers were only a hair's breadth away from each other and missed each other.
The last thing Chu Li saw was Duan Sen’s dull eyes.
“Duan Sen…!!”
"Help!"
Chu Li looked up suddenly, and before he could see who it was, his body subconsciously caught it.
Xiang Liangyu was hanging in the air, relying entirely on Chu Li for support.
After being hurriedly pulled up by everyone, Xiang Liangyu whispered, "Hurry up! The secret passage is open, someone is coming out!"
After that, she turned her head and glanced behind her. Her eyes were slightly lowered so that no one could see the emotions in them: "He..."
Just as Jiang Yu was about to speak angrily, everyone heard a slow and heavy sound of footsteps slowly approaching here.
Jiang Yu grabbed Qu Liuyun, who was frozen in place, and when the footsteps landed on this floor, he ran down with him.
Xiang Liangyu: [Player Duan Sen's health has been severely reduced and has reached the critical health value of 5%. Please ask your teammates to treat him as soon as possible. ]
Qu Liuyun gnashed his teeth and said, "Isn't it a sharing of life points? Let him use our life points!"
Xiang Liangyu's official answer: "The healer's health bar is 100% higher than other players' health bars. It is a separate health bar and can no longer absorb teammates' health to survive."
Jiang Yu stopped, grabbed Xiang Liangyu and pushed her against the wall, gritting his teeth and asking: "What happened? Or was it you who pushed Duan Sen down?"
Xiang Liangyu slowly pushed her away and looked her in the eye: "Why would I push him? After the dark tower was opened, an unknown creature escaped. Duan Sen and I were both pushed down by it."
"This is a man-eating tower. The sea is rising now, and there are birds in the sky staring at this place. We can't get out at all. The dark tower has been triggered and opened by you. If we don't find a place to hide quickly, we can only wait to die."
"Instead of questioning me here, you should go down and rescue your teammates."
