Chapter Sixteen: Exploiting a Glitch to Steal the Ghost Ship—The Dungeon Completely Falls Apart!

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Then Bai Wan seized the wheel and wrenched it sharply to the left.

Boom!!

The ghost ship, which had been sailing straight ahead, immediately veered off course and began heading left.

“Awesome!”

Bai Wan had wanted to pilot a ship for a long time. He never expected to fulfill that dream by accident in this instance.

Sail on—keep sailing!

The most amusing thing was the main-story timer in Bai Wan’s mind.

It showed the time remaining until the ship reached Four Seasons Island.

There had originally been three days left. The display read 72:59, meaning seventy-two hours and fifty-nine minutes.

But now, rather hilariously, the time began to increase slowly—from 72:59 to 73 hours and 59 minutes, then to 90 hours. And finally, even more outrageously, the display showed an infinity symbol: ∞…

That meant the time was infinite. The ship would never arrive, because Bai Wan had completely strayed from the intended route.

Instead of following the path by which they had come, Bai Wan kept accelerating straight to the left.

At that moment, the system’s voice rang out.

[Player, stop piloting the ship immediately! Exit at once! Exit at once!!!]

The Eerie Game had only just realized what Bai Wan was doing, and hurriedly tried to stop him.

Bai Wan’s gaze drifted away. He looked up at the ceiling and began whistling, pretending he had heard nothing.

[Player Bai Wan, please exit the game immediately! Exit at once!!]

A trace of bewilderment flashed through Bai Wan’s eyes. He seemed a little frightened as he said, “Huh? Is someone talking? How scary. Don’t tell me the eerie entity has revived again.”

Then he muttered under his breath, “Don’t make a sound. Don’t make a sound. Pretend there’s no one in the room. No one…”

[System: …]

The ship continued racing forward, showing no sign of slowing down.

[Player, stop your current actions immediately, or your final score and rewards will be affected!]

The Eerie System seemed to have no way of dealing with Bai Wan, so it could only threaten him with his final score.

But Bai Wan laughed when he heard that.

“Score? Rewards? Are they really that important? System, listen carefully…”

“A person’s dreams never end!!”

With that, Bai Wan reached back and pushed the speed to its maximum. He wanted to see what lay beyond the sea.

The system seemed to grow increasingly frantic. But the more frantic it became, the more Bai Wan wanted to find out what was ahead.

In the end, Bai Wan seemed to have found his answer.

“This…”

Looking out the window, a flicker of astonishment crossed Bai Wan’s eyes. Then he could not help laughing aloud.

“Pfft!”

Far in the distance was an enormous picture.

It depicted the sea.

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As it turned out, this so-called map was not very large at all.

Everything was merely a moving image.

“Not to criticize you, but aren’t you being a little too lazy?” Bai Wan said helplessly. Good grief—the mysterious Eerie Game was actually this crude and shoddy.

After thinking about it for a moment, however, he understood. According to the intended sequence of events, the ghost ship was supposed to sail in a straight line. No player should ever have been able to see this place.

So what lay beyond the picture?

A sense of anticipation, long absent from Bai Wan’s heart, rose once more. He steered toward the image. He had expected an invisible wall, but there was nothing of the sort. He passed straight through with ease.

Then the picture vanished.

Even the sea disappeared.

The ghost ship drifted through a black void.

Bai Wan could not help laughing again.

Damn, it really was a ghost ship. It could even fly.

Do your parents know how incredible you are?

The scene was simply too absurd. In the pitch-black void, the ghost ship flew through the darkness like an airplane, moving at incredible speed.

“This is ridiculous…”

Looking at the endless blackness, Bai Wan quickly understood. The Eerie Game’s map only extended this far. Clearly, the game designers had never bothered programming anything beyond it.

Bai Wan had reached an unprogrammed area outside the game map.

As he continued onward, Bai Wan’s eyes suddenly lit up.

In the midst of the empty darkness floated a divine statue, glowing brightly.

“Isn’t that the terrifying and mysterious Bodhisattva statue from the ship earlier? Why is it here? Is it because it’s a game item the system hasn’t had time to reclaim, so they just left it lying around here?”

Bai Wan froze.

[Player Bai Mo, exit immediately, or your score will be reduced to the lowest possible level!!!]

The corners of Bai Wan’s mouth curled into a disdainful smile.

There it was again—lowering his score.

That was the only little trick this Eerie Game knew how to use.

Whoever gave up such a rare opportunity would be an idiot.

Bai Wan immediately opened the ship’s window. As he passed the statue, he reached out, scooped it up, and seized it in one hand.

Whoosh!!

Got it!

The terrifying scene from earlier was still vivid in his mind.

This eerie, malevolent god statue was certainly no ordinary object.

Now that he had obtained the statue and traveled so far, Bai Wan was thoroughly satisfied and prepared to leave.

At that very moment, the darkness ahead seemed to tremble. Light began to shine from within it.

Bai Wan watched as the ship charged straight through.

Then the darkness vanished.

In its place appeared beautiful, elegant moonlight.

Before Bai Wan could admire the view, the ship slammed directly into a wall.

Bang!

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The bricks and tiles on the wall immediately shattered into pieces.

The ship came to a halt.

Bai Wan left the cockpit and looked outside. His mouth fell open in shock.

He stared at the familiar surroundings and the shops before him.

“Holy crap, isn’t this my neighborhood?”

Bai Wan looked wildly in every direction, utterly certain that this was his home.

Had he actually driven straight out of the game instance?

This familiar feeling…

The game had glitched again, hadn’t it?

Bai Wan stared at the ghost ship beside him, feeling somewhat unreal.

Then the system’s voice rang out.

[Player Bai Wan has successfully cleared Ghost Cruise. Settlement commencing…

Player achievements:

1. The Brave: Displayed extraordinary courage in the Eerie Game and possessed the courage to face terrifying eerie entities. On the first night, followed the eerie footsteps, discovered a mysterious wooden door, and successfully evaded pursuit by the eerie entity. Base reward upgraded (C → B).

2. Resourceful: Discovered the eerie entity’s killing pattern and used that pattern against the entity itself. (B → S)

Overall rating: S. Reward: 300 Eerie Coins.]

At first, Bai Wan was quite pleased. An S-rank evaluation and 300 Eerie Coins were clearly no small rewards.

But the further he read, the stranger things seemed.

[In light of the excessive number of reports filed against Player Bai Wan during the game, the rating will be adjusted accordingly…

[Testimony from Chen Weiyu: Player Bai Wan refused to follow the rules and repeatedly trapped me in the wall through despicable methods, such as pretending to be a good older brother. Not only did he interfere with the normal progression of the game, he also seriously violated a woman’s wishes. I, Chen Weiyu, hereby file a real-name report against Player Bai Wan.

Rank adjustment: (S → B)]

Bai Wan’s face darkened as he read on.

Damn it, you’re an eerie entity. Why the hell are you filing a real-name report?

Are you, Chen Weiyu, completely incapable of understanding what you’re doing?!

Then he grew angrier the further he read.

[Testimony from the Black Skeleton: Ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh…

Rank adjustment: (B → C)]

Bai Wan: “…”

“Damn it! Fine, Chen Weiyu filing a real-name report is one thing, but are you seriously telling me you can understand what that skeleton is saying?!”

Bai Wan’s expression twisted.

Slander!

This was nothing less than outright slander!!

And the most outrageous part was still to come.

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