Isolated Island (1)

The Days I Clear Escape Games Pretending to be an NPCCh68 - Isolated Island (1)

There were sounds of wind howling through the air.

There were screeching sounds of something sharp slicing across a solid object. ybcKfM

There were slapping sounds of something flat hitting the water surface.

There were sounds of tiny waves colliding against rocks.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

And there were gurgling and popping sounds of foam forming on the water.

Once again, his enhanced hearing showed him an entirely different side of his world. HN0sGd

When he opened his eyes, he saw wisps of cloud remnants in the grey sky. The open area in front of him was of the ocean, but it was also grey— as if a filter had been applied to make it feel like a morgue.

He was standing on a rocky shore, holding an iron hook in his right hand and a shallowly filled red bucket of water in his left hand. He was wearing a green plastic waterproof suit and his hair was messy because of the wind.

Behind him seems to be an island.

He was unsure because he had never seen such a strange island before. It was shaped like a witch's hat, with flat land surrounding a single protruding point.

uBR1KS

Where is this?

"Xingye! What are you doing?"

Turning around, his eyes landed on a middle-aged man with a big belly that stuck out in the middle of his waterproof suit and pale skin that was reddened by the sun. At that moment, he was fiddling with an old-fashioned hand-cranked water pump.

One end of the water pump was connected to an irregularly shaped puddle that was about five to six meters in diameter and surrounded by green plants that resembled seaweed. xK5Eaj

The middle-aged man cranked the handle rhythmically, and water was pumped from the puddle to the other end of the pump with a slashing sound.

At that moment, Ren Yifei was standing in the puddle that early reached his knees. With sharp eyes, he spotted a stone crab hurriedly running past, and a cat entering a cave under a rock.

The puddle was obviously formed by the accumulation of seawater left behind after the high tide, and judging by the size of the seaweed, it had probably formed for some time now.

With plenty of food (seaweed), a habitat that won't dry up, and sea creatures that were occasionally brought in by the waves, the puddle was well populated with plenty of seafood. fOoUWR

With that in mind, the hand-cranked water pump became easier to understand. It was used to pump water out in order to catch the seafood.

"Strange, why do I keep feeling like something is wrong? The breeze seems saltier and more humid than I remember. Am I being too sensitive?" As he thought, he felt that there was something more, something fishy.

"Xingye," the middle-aged man on the other side holding a plastic bucket looked over again and stared at the motionless Ren Yifei with a displeased expression on his face.

But before he could ask any more questions, Ren Yifei bent down and started to use the iron hook to dig through the puddle. The hook swept at the sand resting at the bottom and caused the water to become cloudy, however, there were no traces of aquatic animals. oYi 5l

"You can't do it like that, you have to put your hand in to feel around," the middle-aged man pointed at him.

Looking down at the non-waterproof cotton glove on his hand, he was silent for two seconds before reaching out his hand. As soon as he touched the water, he couldn't help but shiver: So cold.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

His actions dispelled all the doubts in the middle-aged man's eyes. The middle-aged man increased his pumping speed, "There are strong winds and big waves today. Big waves will bring gifts from the ocean so we'll definitely have a large harvest today."

The middle-aged man spoke happily while observing the movements in the puddle. QGL 57

This middle-aged man doesn't seem to have grown up by the ocean, but he was unexpectedly familiar with catching sea creatures.

Because he didn't know what kind of person the original owner was, or what kind of relationship they had with the middle-aged man, Ren Yifei hesitated for a while and didn't reply rashly.

As a result, the middle-aged man didn't need anyone to talk to him at all. He just continued on talking to himself, "The weather was just like this the last time when I caught a big lobster that weighed more than half a kilo and sold it for more than two hundred."

This middle-aged man was a talker. He never stopped talking, and he was very happy talking by himself so there was absolutely no chance for Ren Yifei to intervene. ncAVFD

The only thing he had to do was mechanically bend down to search for seafood, however, this seemingly light physical work was quite tiring and he quickly became exhausted.

However, Ren Yifei still showed no signs of fatigue. The original owner had honey-coloured skin and his arms were covered with beautifully toned muscles. It seemed that he was not someone who was not good at physical labour.

He should at least be sporty.

"En?" suddenly, the hook in his hand hit something that didn't look like a rock. Ren Yifei tried to pull it out with the iron hook and a black object emerged. msrny6

"Did you find something good?" The middle-aged man also looked over, and when he saw what the object was, he almost laughed, "It turns out to be that? Put it aside and throw it in the trash later. Ha... more and more of these things are being washed up over the past two months."

After scrutinising the soaked black leather boot on the iron hook, Ren Yifei was about to throw it away when a small stone carb emerged. In one of its large pincers seems to be a pale piece of flesh.

This piece of flesh has thick curly hair, very much like... the kind of hair you would find on the lower part of the human body.

The fishy stench in the breeze didn't make him vomit, but this piece of flesh made him gag. 7ar6b0

The rotten leather boot with the stone crab inside was thrown onto the shore. Ren Yifei turned around and took a few deep breaths to calm down.

There will be no meaningless details in an instance. So, what were the small piece of human flesh and the leather boot hinting at?

"Is there a lot of garbage?" Ren Yifei asked.

The middle-aged man was still pumping water when he heard this. He thought for a while and answered, "There are quite a few. Clothes, shoes, bags..." SxWfbn

As soon as he heard this information, Ren Yifei didn't even think about it before asking, "Has a cruise ship sank recently?" Otherwise, why would there be all these things?

"Bah!" The middle-aged man felt that it was unlucky, "How should I know? The wind is getting stronger, why don't you hurry up and continue searching?"

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Helpless, he lowered his head and continued searching.

"Huhuhu," a distinct sound in the distance seems to come closer, and when he looked up, he saw a drone circling overhead. R tLcm

"What time is it now?" When he thought of this, he subconsciously glanced down at his left hand. However, he was not wearing a watch on that hand, instead, an elegant-looking mechanical watch was around his right wrist.

He was left-handed?

The metal straps, with asymmetrical lengths, had been adjusted to fit nicely on his wrist; it was neither too loose nor too tight.

When the watch slide up and down, an inconspicuous white circle could be seen on his wrist. zdPy4I

It was evident that the original owner often used this watch.

A faint blue light was reflected whenever light would hit the face of the watch, and although there were many small scratches on the metal ring around the side, the surface of the watch was very smooth.

It was an expensive sapphire watch.

He could hear the mechanical sounds in the watch. He could make out the fine clicking sounds of delicate gears turning, but other than that, the other sounds were basically inaudible. q45mjl

The original owner wears a medium-to-high-end watch all year round so his economic situation should be quite good.

He looked at his hands again.

The skin on the palms of his hands was delicate, while the skin on the back of his hands had no obvious fine lines and was full of elasticity.

He appears to be very young, about twenty or less years old. ozWOlK

There were no calluses on his hands and his fingers were not deformed nor peeling, instead, they looked very clean. There were no signs of long-term physical labour at all.

There were only calluses on the side of his left middle finger that was caused by holding a pen all year round.

A student.

He wears a watch around his right hand and holds a pen with his left hand, which means he was definitely left-handed. kLEbY

The original owner was a student under the age of twenty, with good financial conditions, and was left-handed.

This student was currently pumping water and running around by the ocean with a middle-aged man of unknown identity. What exactly were they doing?

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

"It would be great if we could get some fresh seafood," the middle-aged man chattered as he pumped water, "Your tuition could be paid if we can catch a few more large lobsters and stone fish."

Tuition fee? o6401N

Why? Did the original owner come from a broken family, or did they just go bankrupt? How could he afford such a good watch but couldn't even afford his tuition fee?

There were contradictions and doubts everywhere but the expression on Ren Yifei's face didn't change. He replied, "Sure."

"Huh?" The man straightened up and gave him a smile, "I think you're a good-natured kid, not as unreasonable as they say. In fact, it's okay to have a bad temper. If you go to a big city and get bullied, you can still at least speak up for yourself."

In this regard, Ren Yifei remained silent and did not speak. Jk6yHc

Unreasonable and ill-tempered? How bad was he?

After his miscalculation with 'He Jun', Ren Yifei did not dare to rashly speculate on the character's persona. He did not want to act as if he had dissociative identity disorder again.

That was his last resort. It could be said that he went astray from the path, which had greatly violated the original intentions of the act.

Facing Ren Yifei's indifference, the man was not surprised. He felt thirsty after talking for a while and picked up the drinking cup on the reef which had been filled halfway. JDu48G

Looking the other way, he felt that the breeze that day was surprisingly strong and the weather was also gloomy. The shape of the clouds was a bit strange and the ships on the ocean were gradually becoming indiscernible.

The sound of the waves crashing and the wind howling grew louder. He felt a tingling sensation when the wind blew on his face. However, what made him the most uncomfortable was not the wind, instead, it was the damp and cold feeling.

Although it was summer, his legs and feet were cold.

"Aiyo, I'll go get some water first," the middle-aged age released the handle of the water pump in his hand and ran further into the shore. JddDHM

It wasn't until the other party's back disappeared behind the large rocks did Ren Yifei stood up, twisted his sore waist and shook his numb and stiff arms.

He quickly glanced around and didn't see anyone, not even a single seabird. However, he still felt as though he was being watched. So, under the guise of bending over to search for seafood, Ren Yifei quickly glanced at the game card in his hand:

[One of the players is a murderer, find them or survive for seven days. ]

[Identity: Player ] 1dljWb

[Role: Islander ]

[Character quest: Escape ]

Read more BL at chrysanthemumgarden (dot) com

[Keywords: Isolated Island. ]

[12] B9Pdh

He stood up again after only two seconds. That short amount of time was enough for him to read all the information.

The keywords were Isolated Island, and the character quest was to escape. Could the island be referring to where he was currently standing? So, does that mean he had to leave this island to start a new life?

These two pieces of information left him scratching his head.

Just as he was pondering over it, very light footsteps could be heard from behind the rocks. Ren Yifei immediately collected himself and continued lifting rocks and using the iron hook to search for seafood. There were many venomous things in the sea, such as the thorns on the stone fish, therefore, he could not touch around carelessly. 0TCjbZ

The wind was getting stronger and the sky was getting darker.

The man staggered back, "How was it? Did you see anything good in the pool?"

"No," Ren Yifei's voice was drowned out by the howling wind.

The next second, his iron hook got stuck on something soft and elastic. He subconsciously remembered the piece of hairy flesh. v3EAaF

A severed fish head surfaced accompanied by a nauseating red liquid. White fish eyes stared at him while blood was still pouring out from its head.

It smelled fishy.

Facing the cleanly severed fish head, he stilled for a while.

The fish had only recently died, and it had happened right in front of him. However, he had no idea what had killed it. The fish was as big as a bowl but there was not even a trace of a struggle, it just directly got cut into two. It was unknown where the rest of it went. mrPORd

He dug around in the water with the iron hook, but there was nothing in it. But he knows that something must be looking at him through the water.

"It's a miiuy croaker," the middle-aged man glanced at the fish, "Did you cut it with the hook? It looks quite big, but it's a pity that we can't use it."

Ren Yifei did not explain.

The two continued to pump water and lift up rocks one by one. It took almost an hour to pump out most of the remaining water in the puddle, and the marine life below was slowly exposed in the shallow water. JqcUl3

The wind was getting stronger, the weather was getting colder and the sky was becoming cloudy.

They had been pumping water for an hour or two, and only had half an hour to actually catch seafood.

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Sea bream, scorpion fish, conger eel, stone crab, mantis shrimp...

There were indeed a lot of good findings in this puddle filled with sea creatures. Although there were many that Ren Yifei can't recognise, he knew by looking at the middle-aged man's actions that there will be a profit. CfgVaZ

Once again, he lifted a rock and picked up a motionless stone crab. Currently, Ren Yifei's bucket was half full.

He was a little absent-minded.

The start of this instance seems mundane and peaceful. But there was something a little unusual in this seemingly mundane scene, something that was rather difficult to fathom.

There was another faint squeaking sound that was especially similar to a crustacean's claws grasping on a stone. He identified the direction of the sound and approached it. m8lkia

"Xingye."

Ren Yifei stopped.

The middle-aged man stopped him, "It's almost time, let's go. Let's go to the market and sell them. It'll be hard to sell after they're dead."

As he spoke, he picked up the bucket full of fish, shrimp and crabs and walked toward the shore. wQvrzB

"Yeah," without any hesitation, Ren Yifei also carried the bucket and turned around to get out of the puddle, leaving a trail of water behind him.

"How far is the market?"

"Oh, it's very close, not more than ten minutes. I have a vehicle," the middle-aged man pointed to the side of the road.

Ren Yifei looked over and saw a cart that had been transformed into an electric tricycle. pYwBrd

After the rumbling of the motor, there were no signs of any humans on the coast.

Many large bubbles suddenly surfaced in the puddle that still had a lot of water remaining. There were some gurgling sounds, and within seconds, the water in the puddle was completely drained.