Li Jing watched Xiao Kaka's stream, and the more she watched, the more something felt off. She tabbed out again to check the other channels.
[Little Fisherman's Stream]
Little Fisherman was one of the anchors she'd hired. Despite the name, he was a legitimate game streamer—he'd just actually been a fisherman long ago. After his coastal village was swallowed by the sea, he'd switched to streaming, and he'd always done well in the "ocean & fishing" category. As of yesterday, he'd still been playing Era of Fishermen.
"Brothers, the feel of Great Age of Sail is honestly stronger than Era of Fishermen. The devs weren't bluffing."
He grinned and panned his camera to show off the haul he'd just reeled in. His starter was a small skiff with a rod at hand, so he'd simply begun shore-casting. Before long, the little boat was piled with fish of all kinds.
Chat was equal parts jealous and disbelieving.
[Fake. Fake!]
[You toggled something, didn't you?]
[They're obviously buffing your account. No way fish are this easy.]
[You think fish are stupid? Half the time they steal your bait and ghost your hook!]
[Keep coping. Keep learning!]
Suddenly the rod lurched in his hands. He shot to his feet and braced.
"Got another! This one's a big one!"
At that, the chat held its breath—nervous and excited.
"Damn—this thing's got power."
He hauled with everything he had, but the thing on the line felt like a thousand-jin anchor that would not budge. His face flushed from the effort.
"I don't buy it. This has to be a monster."
"You think it's a shark? Or… tuna?"
[Keep dreaming, streamer.]
[Tuna? You think you're that lucky?]
The bickering blurred into a roar. After a long stalemate, the line suddenly slackened. For a heartbeat he thought he'd blanked—but no. He felt it now: the fish was coming in.
He whooped. "Brothers, I've got it! I'm bringing it up!"
[No way. Impossible.]
[Cheats. Has to be cheats!]
Ignoring the scroll, he cranked the reel tighter and tighter—when a heavy sound swelled beside the boat, like the sea itself parting around something huge.
No—not like. It was something huge.
Splash—crash!
A grotesquely shaped giant fish broke the surface. A fin was wrapped in his line; it jerked, the taut cord singing—
—and Little Fisherman went flying headfirst into the water.
Cold soaked him in an instant, but he didn't spare it a thought. Because looming in front of him, only half its head out of the water, was a deep-sea behemoth—a Sea King-class monster.
"Holy—!"
He croaked the words; the entire chat went dead silent, then exploded.
The Sea King stared at him for a beat, then gave a weird little flick and shook the line free of its fin. This one, mercifully, was mild-tempered—it had no interest in attacking a human. With a sweep of its bulk, it slipped back under and glided away.
Little Fisherman bobbed there, stunned, watching that vast black shadow dwindle in the blue.
He clawed his way back into the skiff, then finally looked at the barrage, lips trembling. "Brothers… what was that?"
"This game has fish that big?"
It wasn't until he'd lived it—salt in his nose, cold in his bones—that the fear truly hit. The chat detonated.
[What even isGreat Age of Sail supposed to be?]
[Didn't the devs say it was a fishing-and-sailing game?]
[Then what the hell was that?]
[Not even the biggest whale on record is that size.]
[For real. Just that head was over ten meters tall!]
[Are we crazy—or is this game insane?]
Li Jing slipped out of the channel, expression tight. She checked the other streams again. Something wasn't adding up. This ocean was starting to lift a corner of a very mysterious veil.
She jumped back to Xiao Kaka's stream—and froze, eyes going wide.
Chat was a wall of "Holy—!" and "Don't!" and "Nooo!".
On-screen, the sweet-voiced beauty had been spotted the instant the pirates boarded. A sub-captain had taken a shine to her and ordered his men to tie her up. Now she stood on deck, ropes biting into her arms, eyes shimmering as she stared at the chat.
"Guys, help me out here," she pleaded. "What do I do? If they take me back to their ship, then…"
[There is no if, Kaka. You're already captured!]
[Wasn't this a fishing game? Why are there actual pirates?]
[What the hell is going on?]
While the comments streamed past, Kaka watched the pirates finish stripping the merchantman's hold. A few sailors, not tied, crouched on the side. They were worse than useless—pants soaked, shaking like reeds. Only the captain had shown a sliver of spine; he'd stepped up when the pirates boarded.
He didn't even get a shot off.
A single bullet blew out the back of his head—fired by the same sub-captain who was eyeing Kaka.
The plunder went fast. The pirates moved like they'd done this a hundred times. When the last chest thumped onto the deck, the sub-captain glanced at Kaka and grinned.
"That pretty face? We'll gift her to the captain first. Once he's bored, she's mine. Hahahaha!"
Filth poured from his mouth. Kaka's expression twisted; disgust warred with fear.
They hauled her across the gangplank to the other ship, where she finally saw the captain of the Hild Pirates. As an East Sea pirate with a ten-million-Beli bounty, he had presence: a hulking brute over three meters tall, muscles corded like rope—and eyes as vicious as a starving wolf's. The look alone made Kaka—and countless viewers—flinch.
"Boys, we sail the second we're done. The damned Navy'll be on us soon," he barked.
"Hou hou hou!"
The crew whooped. Kaka stood bound amid them, face drained of color. A girl like her, shackled on a den of wolves—you didn't need imagination to picture the outcome.
Her stomach turned to ice. It might be a game—but her character was a living person in here. And death… was permanent.
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