"Even if we somehow managed to get into the rich guy's house from the seabed, there are traps at the exit too! So why the hell are we going through the ocean? It's way too dangerous." Jing Shu gestured in the water, frustrated. If all else failed, she could've just gone in disguised as a nun. Damn it, why did they have to pick such a suicidal plan?
But Yang Yang motioned for her to calm down. If he wasn't sure about this, he wouldn't have jumped in so recklessly.
As expected of a rich man's private undersea world, it was massive, unbelievably so. It didn't look any different from a natural seabed, except the guy had basically moved the whole ocean world under his feet. The hobbies of the wealthy were truly bizarre.
Jing Shu followed closely behind Hao Yunlai. They swam through a long underwater tunnel that seemed endless. Only after swimming several hundred meters did the view suddenly open up. She realized this must be the undersea world built beneath the rich man's home.
The seawater was freezing. Jing Shu's ears rang from the pressure, the sound bubbling in her head. The murky water blurred her vision, but she could still make out a few things.
A shark was feeding nearby, its massive mouth sucking in fish and other creatures. Yet, even as it ate, smaller fish were biting chunks off its rotting flesh. They were devouring each other in a grotesque, endless cycle.
Her eyes widened, and bubbles of oxygen escaped her mouth. The shark's body was covered in festering, greenish-white rot. That look was unmistakable—it had caught the zombie virus! One of the undead species! So it wasn't just the creatures on land that got infected, but those in the sea too.
The three of them carefully swam around the zombie shark. Just as they were about to pass it, Hao Yunlai suddenly shuddered violently and dropped toward the seafloor, about ten meters below. Jing Shu and Yang Yang hurried after him.
Then, a massive school of fish swam past overhead, each several dozen centimeters long. The swarm passed through the shark's area in mere seconds, and by the time they were gone, the three-meter-long shark had been reduced to nothing but bones.
Looking closer, Jing Shu noticed every single fish had razor-sharp teeth. They looked terrifying.
"Piranhas! Holy shit, that was close!"
Sweat prickled across her forehead, even underwater. Hao Yunlai's timing had saved them.
No wonder no one ever made it through the water alive. No matter how much weaponry you carried, it wouldn't help here.
Then Jing Shu felt something prick her foot. Looking down, she saw strange corals and weird-looking crabs crawling on the seabed. The moment she landed, the crabs swarmed toward them in a frenzy.
Just then, the shark's white bones sank to the seafloor. Instantly, the crabs switched targets, clicking their pincers and tearing into the bones. Those pincers were so strong they actually crushed and ate the bones! That was beyond terrifying.
"Move!" Jing Shu's heart pounded. Leaving her life up to fate suddenly felt like the stupidest idea ever.
They managed to dodge the bizarre sea creatures, but danger wasn't done with them yet.
"We can't go this way," Hao Yunlai muttered, his face twisting in pain. He hugged himself, trembling. "It's dangerous. I can feel something dangerous!"
What now? Was something coming? Jing Shu's heart jumped to her throat. This was bad. Really bad. He said it was dangerous but stopped moving? Wouldn't that make them sitting ducks?
Just as she was about to unleash her power, Hao Yunlai suddenly grabbed his own throat. His fingers dug in tight, twisting his neck in a disturbingly unnatural motion, as if he were trying to strangle himself to death.
"What the hell is this?!" Jing Shu's eyes widened. Was he seriously trying to kill himself before the danger could?
Yang Yang pulled her back a bit. Hao Yunlai thrashed violently, kicking and flailing, his face turning red as his hands tightened around his own neck. But looking closer, it wasn't self-inflicted—it was like something invisible was forcing him to choke himself while he fought against it in agony.
None of it made sense. What kind of twisted self-torture was this? There was no way this was normal suicide.
After about thirty seconds, Hao Yunlai finally coughed, blood and air bubbles bursting from his mouthpiece. His face had gone pale, but he kept swimming forward, expression blank. The atmosphere turned eerily quiet.
Something was definitely wrong with him. His eyes were bloodshot, glowing a terrifying crimson. Veins bulged across his skin, looking like they might burst at any moment.
Normally, Hao Yunlai was quiet to the point of invisibility. He blended into any crowd, rarely spoke, and preferred to sleep whenever he could. Though they were teammates from Wu City, Jing Shu barely knew him.
They'd never even worked together before. Somehow, they'd always ended up on separate missions, as if fate itself had kept them apart—until now.
"Let's go," Yang Yang said, following Hao Yunlai without hesitation, completely unfazed by what just happened.
Jing Shu was dumbfounded. Hao Yunlai had literally just said it was dangerous, and now it wasn't? Did strangling himself somehow make it safe again? What kind of twisted logic was that?
Even so, she followed, cautious but determined. Her mind was already calculating the combat power of the underwater creatures, her own strength, and at least three different escape plans. If things went bad, she wouldn't care about hiding her abilities. After dying once, she'd learned to treasure her life more than anything.
But as they moved forward, Jing Shu's mind was blown once again. If Hao Yunlai used to avoid trouble before, now he was the embodiment of it. His eyes were cold and predatory, like a machine programmed to kill.
Wherever he went, death followed.
Yes, that was the only way to describe him—an omen of death, a walking plague god.
Every living thing around him withered. Some were eaten by others, some just dropped dead, and others died in bizarre, inexplicable ways. No matter what, disaster struck everything in his path.
Jing Shu's scalp went numb. "Hao Yunlai... is he really a bringer of luck, or the son of misfortune?"