Liu Qiao's voice was muffled by the Mineral Water bottle, sounding very faint, but Xiao Lou noticed the movement inside the bottle immediately. He took the Mineral Water bottle from Ye Qi and asked softly, "Is Xiao Liu awake?"
Liu Qiao swam around in the bottle and found that Xiao Lou in front of her seemed to be magnified dozens of times in her field of vision. His face looked like a wall to her. She finally realized what was happening and said, "You shrunk me to the size of a thumb and locked me in a bottle? Like Spade 8 locking up CEO Shao?"
Shao Qingge leaned closer and asked, "Do you still remember Spade 8?"
Liu Qiao said, "Of course, CEO Shao was infected by the Zerg while saving Xiao Ye. At the time, everyone was afraid you would harm your teammates, so they used my Thumbelina. " "Card locked you in the bottle..." She paused, then suddenly realized, "I understand. You shrunk me and locked me in the bottle because you were worried I would hurt everyone? You suspected I was a clone?"
Hearing this, Xiao Lou's suspicions about her lessened considerably. After all, only her teammates knew that Shao Qingge had been infected by the Zerg while saving Ye Qi, and Liu Qiao's ability to say this accurately greatly increased her credibility.
Yu Hanjiang asked in a low voice, "Do you remember where we first met?"
Liu Qiao said, " At the mountain god temple in Liuxi Village, I transformed into a little red riding hood and released a flying lantern to lure you here, which led you to discover the human bone pit behind the mountain god temple."
Yu Hanjiang continued, " In the secret chamber of Turmoil of War, what were our identities?"
Liu Qiao answered seriously: " Captain Yu is the newly appointed prefect, Professor Xiao is your wife, CEO Shao is a rich young master, Lao Mo is the advisor, Long Sen is a guard of the royal palace, Sister Qu is the princess's personal maid, I am a female doctor, Ye Qi is..." She turned to look at Xiao Ye: "The top courtesan of the brothel."
Ye Qi couldn't help but facepalm: "Can we please not bring up that dark history... Captain Yu, can you ask a different question?"
Yu Hanjiang immediately changed the question: " What illnesses did everyone have at the 10th stage?"
Liu Qiao said, " Professor Xiao is the chief resident of surgery; Captain Yu was shot and rushed to the emergency room; Xiao Ye got pneumonia in the Pediatrics Department; CEO Shao has heart disease and had stent surgery; Long Sen broke his leg in orthopedics; Lao Mo had intestinal obstruction and was sent for surgery; I have a blood disease; Sister Qu is pregnant and has lupus…"
Lu Jiuchuan touched his nose and said, "It sounds like you guys had a really tough time at the tenth stage; you were all sick."
Ye Qi said, "The combination of the elderly, the weak, the sick, the disabled, and the pregnant is indeed tragic. Only Professor Xiao is a normal person... However, I think this level is more troublesome. In the tenth stage, everyone's mobility was limited, and the clues were very clear. But in this level, we don't even know how many clones we have so far."
Yu Hanjiang asked, " Do you still remember the plot of Hearts 9?"
Liu Qiao said, "In the entertainment industry murder cases, the first murderer was a psychologically twisted person who killed the judge who gave him a bad review in a singing competition, and the other was a body double who killed her best friend after plastic surgery."
Listening to Liu Qiao's fluent answers about the past events, Xiao Lou finally breathed a sigh of relief. Just to be on the safe side, he continued to ask, "Xiao Liu, do you remember the medical university library? There are materials related to traditional Chinese medicine on the 23rd floor."
Liu Qiao thought for a moment and said, "Yes, I often go to the 23rd floor to borrow books."
Xiao Lou was silent for a moment, then turned to Yu Hanjiang and said, "No problem, this Liu Qiao should be the real person."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.
Liu Qiao said, " Xiao Lou must have laced the pastries he brought me with a drug. I passed out after eating them. If Professor Xiao hadn't suddenly connected with me via Telepathic Connection, I wouldn't have suspected his identity at all. He looks so much like Professor Xiao."
Xiao Lou said helplessly, " Cloners are 99% genetically similar, almost like twins, so it's really hard to tell them apart by appearance. The one you saw was Xiao Lou number 5. He has genes from humans, Zerg, and the Merfolk Clan. Plus, he's a Hunter, so he knows our team inside and out, which makes him really difficult to deal with."
Liu Qiao asked in confusion, " Hunter? Why would clone become Hunter?"
Xiao Lou said, "I guess Hunter, like Challenger, can travel between different Secret Room Worlds. We can come directly to this world and be assigned different identities, so Hunter can naturally be assigned identities as well. Moreover, the more important the identity assigned to Hunter, the more difficult it will be for us to complete the game."
Shao Qingge pondered: "For example, in Tenth Stage, my adoptive mother was Hunter?"
Ye Qi couldn't help but shudder at the memory of that rainy night: "If CEO Shao and I hadn't reacted quickly enough, his mother would have almost killed us at the last moment!"
Xiao Lou glanced at his teammates and said meaningfully, "So, the Hunter for this level is assigned to ' Xiao Lou'..." The fact that we 're a 'clone ' will greatly increase the difficulty of clearing the game. If we're not vigilant enough, we might fall into that person's trap.
Yu Hanjiang said, "We can avoid him for now and investigate the shipwreck incident thoroughly."
Xiao Lou agreed: "Okay, we'll dive into the deep sea as soon as it's light."
Liu Qiao swam around in the bottle and asked, "Can you let me out? I am the princess of Merfolk Clan and I am familiar with the palace's layout. Perhaps I can be of help."
Xiao Lou winked at Yu Hanjiang, who nodded, walked over, unscrewed the bottle cap, and poured out tiny fish, no bigger than a finger. At the same time, Gui Yuanzhang put away the [ Thumbelina ] card, and Liu Qiao immediately reverted to her original form.
Her tail was the longest of all, exceeding 2 meters. Its silvery-white color shimmered under the moonlight, even more so than the mermaids in the movies.
The main character also has to be beautiful.
Lu Jiuchuan glanced at her tail: "Is this the tail of a mermaid with royal blood?"
Gui Yuanzhang nodded: "The mark of royal blood is very obvious, their tails are all silver, and such pure-blooded mermaids are becoming increasingly rare. The Merfolk Clan believes in racial concepts and considers silver tails to be the most noble, and those who can inherit the throne must be descendants of pure-blooded silver-tailed mermaids."
After a moment's thought, Xiao Lou said, "The current Merfolk Clan prince is artificially cultivated using genetic technology. As long as the gene fragment that determines the Merfolk Clan's tail color is extracted and fused into Xiao Lou No. 4's cells during the clone creation process, the cultivated Xiao Lou No. 5 will automatically possess the silver tail that symbolizes royal blood?"
Yu Hanjiang said, "Then find an excuse like 'a bastard child who has been living abroad,' and the Merfolk Clan people will not doubt the prince's identity, after all, he has a pure silver tail."
Ye Qi looked at Xiao Lou: "Can we distinguish Professor Xiao from that clone based on the color of their tails?"
Xiao Lou laughed and said, "My tail is blue like that of an ordinary clansman, while his is silver like that of a royal. It is indeed distinguishable. However, within the palace, the Merfolk Clan must walk on two legs and not show their tails, so it is still difficult to tell them apart on the surface. Everyone, try not to get separated when we move out tomorrow, so that the clone can take advantage of the situation."
Gui Yuanzhang said cautiously, "If we eliminate that clone, we can then rightfully allow Mermaid Princess to..." Liu Qiao became the new king of the Merfolk Clan.
Liu Qiao was stunned for a moment: "Me? The king?"
Ye Qi patted her shoulder and said, "A lot of pressure, isn't it? Professor Xiao also has to inherit the throne. This is a challenge for both of you, as you have rather special identities."
Liu Qiao thought for a moment and nodded seriously: "Okay, I will cooperate with everyone."
It was already 4:30 a.m., and Xiao Lou said, "Everyone, rest for a while, and we'll set off at dawn."
Everyone was really tired after staying up all night, so we lay down on the rocks and took a short nap.
Xiao Lou wasn't asleep. He lowered his head, seemingly deep in thought. After a long while, he secretly took Yu Hanjiang's hand and quickly wrote a few words in Yu Hanjiang's palm. Yu Hanjiang raised an eyebrow in surprise, then gave Xiao Lou a knowing look and said gently, "Take a rest."
Xiao Lou closed her eyes and pretended to sleep for half an hour.
Not long after, a faint light appeared on the eastern horizon, and it was already dawn. Xiao Lou woke everyone up and said, "Get ready to move out. Mermaid Princess's transformation time is down to 5 hours."
The Merfolk Clan's lifestyle involves being active at night and resting during the day, believing it's safer to act only after daybreak.
To facilitate underwater communication, Xiao Lou opened the [team voice headset] card and gave each person a headset. He pressed the protrusion on the headset and said, "Xiao Liu, please lead the way. Captain Yu and I will cover the rear."
Liu Qiao nodded and plunged into the sea, her silver fishtail drawing a beautiful arc in the air.
Gui Yuanzhang and Lao Mo followed closely behind, and CEO Shao, Xiao Ye, Lu Jiuchuan, Tang Ci, and others also jumped into the deep sea one after another.
Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou followed at the back, and the group swam quickly toward the location of the shipwreck.
After adapting to the "legs turning into a fish tail" setting, everyone swam faster and faster in the sea.
Ye Qi had been a landlubber for over a decade, always afraid to go into the water. He never imagined that one day he could swim freely in the deep ocean and even see colorful schools of fish.
The deeper you dive, the more beautiful the scenery becomes.
A magnificent underwater panorama slowly unfolded before everyone's eyes. Corals of various colors covered the entire sea like vast underwater flowerbeds, and schools of fish darted through the coral reefs. The colorful deep-sea fish opened the door to another world for everyone.
This is the mysterious, tranquil, yet dangerous seabed.
Here you'll find adorable little fish, and also ferocious giant whales. The ocean is a place where the rule of "survival of the fittest" always applies: big fish eat small fish, small fish eat shrimp, and the weak have no right to survive.
It's no wonder that the Merfolk Clan would be interested in the Noahs Ark Project. If the Merfolk Clan were to truly integrate the genes of humans and Zerg and pass them down, they would be virtually unmatched and become the overlords of the entire ocean.
Liu Qiao said, "The sunken ship is just ahead."
The group followed, and soon a military spaceship came into view.
The spaceship was well-made and of excellent quality. Even though it was old, there were no obvious signs of rust on its metal hull. Lu Jiuchuan swung his fish tail, quickly stepped forward, grabbed the hatch, and was the first to enter the cabin.
The others quickly followed.
Lu Jiuchuan walked into the control room, looked at a bird-like symbol on the control panel, and whispered, "This spaceship should be the ' Egret ' starship that was decommissioned by the Southern Theater Command 25 years ago. This bird-shaped symbol represents Egret."
Tang Ci paused slightly, walked to Lu Jiuchuan's side, looked at the complicated control panel, and said, "It is indeed a control mode from more than 20 years ago. If I remember correctly, Egret was..."
Lu Jiuchuan said, " General Lin's starship."
******