162: Chapter 162 It looks like a cat, it looks like a cat

Lin Xi sat up straight in her chair and gave a long, deep stretch.

The time in the bottom right corner of the screen had already jumped past five in the afternoon.

Lately, besides continuing to stream her favorite Plants vs. Zombies Hybrid Edition, she had specifically set aside half of her streaming time to play deep sea mystery.

The reason she was streaming this...

Wasn't because she liked it that much, but because the bullet chat kept mocking her, asking if she was too afraid to play due to thalassophobia. After being mocked enough, Lin Xi simply decided to play it, adopting an attitude of supporting her good bestie's work while she was at it.

After five or six days of high-intensity play.

This afternoon, Lin Xi finally managed to build the cyclops.

She had been mining until three in the morning and slept until noon today before waking up. Because of this, she missed the chance to have breakfast with Jiang Yuan, which left her feeling annoyed for quite a while after she woke.

However, when the cyclops docked at the base she built on the seabed, she still sat in the cockpit giggling for a good while, feeling like it wasn't a total loss after all.

Lin Xi cleared her throat at the camera and said with a serious face:

"Alright, alright, I've finally built the cyclops. What should I do next? You guys tell me!"

Upon hearing this, the bullet chat instantly became lively.

"Is that even a question?! Go kill a Leviathan, of course!"

"Holy crap, there's actually a ship this big? Impressive, impressive. With this, why would I be afraid of the deep sea?"

"I heard this thing can go down thousands of meters? How about the streamer takes a trip to the Lost Sea?"

"Don't make it hard on Xi-bao. Didn't you see her look of distress every time she goes into the deep sea?"

"True, if the streamer has thalassophobia, she shouldn't force it. There's no shame in that."

"Yeah, yeah, don't scare my Xi-bao to death!"

Lin Xi happily sipped her drink while reading aloud:

"Take a trip? Let's go then! Thalassophobia? Heh, I'm not even afraid of the real deep sea, so why would I fear a game? Today's goal is the Lost Sea below the cliff!"

With that, she drove the cyclops directly out of the base.

The massive cylindrical submarine slowly turned around in the shallow waters. Sunlight filtered down from the surface, casting shifting patterns of light onto the hull's armor plates, looking incredibly beautiful.

Lin Xi controlled her character to enter the cockpit, lighting up over a dozen instrument panels at once. The sonar on the starboard screen slowly refreshed the surrounding terrain. Watching this, she couldn't help but remark with some emotion:

"Even though the graphics of this game aren't particularly amazing, the attention to detail is really impressive."

As Jiang Yuan's best friend.

She naturally knew some of the inside story.

She knew that because the game had been in development for over three years, it was already more than half-finished when it reached Spark Games. Consequently, they didn't switch it over to the Aurora Engine, so the graphics weren't actually top-tier.

The reason it had become a recent bestseller was specifically because the details were handled so exceptionally well.

Accompanied by the engine starting up.

The cyclops let out a low rumble and slowly submerged beneath the surface.

Lin Xi controlled the massive vessel, steering it slowly toward the marked location of the seafloor cliff.

At that moment, the depth gauge began to tick down slowly.

Two hundred meters, three hundred meters, five hundred meters.

As the sunlight drifted further away, the color of the seawater gradually deepened from a clear blue. Finally, at around four or five hundred meters, it turned into a color somewhere between dark green and deep gray.

The surface was no longer visible overhead; only the searchlight beams cut a bright column of light through the darkness.

The cockpit fell silent, save for the low-frequency pulses of the sonar that beeped rhythmically. Each beep made Lin Xi feel as if her heart was growing heavy and uneasy.

The bullet chat also went silent for a moment before erupting with heartfelt exclamations:

"Whoa, this is getting a bit oppressive..."

"If you fall down at this depth, can you even come back up?"

"Oh my god, even the deep sea in a game is this scary. I can't imagine if I fell into the real deep sea; I'd probably be scared to death instantly..."

"Xi-bao, aren't you afraid?"

Lin Xi glanced at the chat. Although her heart was heavy with dread, it clearly wasn't the time to back down. She immediately snorted and replied:

"Afraid of what?!"

Just then, the hull gave a slight jolt. It turned out they had reached the cliff.

The cyclops's searchlights illuminated the path ahead.

The seafloor looked as if it had been split by a giant axe, revealing an endless abyss that plunged straight down.

The lights shone down but hit nothing; there was only an endless deep blue, almost abyssal. It was enough to make one's eyelids twitch and skin crawl.

Lin Xi silently took a deep breath and shouted loudly:

"Sit tight, brothers and sisters! The doors are locked and no one is getting off this ship. Let's go!"

The moment she finished speaking.

The bow of the cyclops tilted downward and slowly steered into that abyss.

The depth gauge began to spin rapidly: five hundred meters, seven hundred meters, and in a flash, it reached a depth of one thousand meters.

The searchlight beams swept lonely through the darkness. Occasionally, a few points of glowing plankton and various bizarre fish drifted through the light, making faint thumping sounds as they bumped against the hull.

Just as Lin Xi secretly breathed a sigh of relief, thinking this deep-sea adventure would pass without incident.

A red dot suddenly lit up on the sonar interface of the control console.

The object represented by the red dot was three hundred meters away and looked quite large. After a brief pause, it began rapidly closing in on the cyclops's position.

Seeing this.

Lin Xi's heart leaped into her throat. Realizing things were bad, she steered the cyclops in another direction while whispering:

"Crap, crap, crap! Something's down there, and it's fast!"

Bullet chat:

"???"

"Run, Xi-bao!"

"This is bad. Is the big ship the streamer worked so hard to build going to be sunk the moment it hits the water?"

"Damn, this is so scary? I was planning to buy this game, but forget it."

"What is it? Is it an Abyssal Shark? Or a Mosasaurus?"

"My guess is a Leviathan. I think there's one active around here. Heh, I know, but I'm not telling the streamer!"

Just as Lin Xi finished turning and accelerated.

The cyclops suddenly shuddered violently!

The hull tilted sharply to the starboard side.

Alarms began to scream, and red lights bathed the cockpit in a flickering glow, creating an incredibly oppressive atmosphere.

Lin Xi was startled, her beautiful, fair face seeming to turn even paler in that moment.

She quickly composed herself and looked closely. She saw the damage icon for the starboard armor plates flashing wildly on the panel. The durability had dropped by a full bar from that single collision.

Outside the port observation window, a massive, ghostly blue figure seemed to flash by. It was too fast, so fast she could only barely make out an outline.

It appeared to have a slender body, like a giant snake stretched out countless times. Rows of neat, glowing spots lined its sides, shining in the darkness like two rows of ghostly blue dots, radiating a sense of overwhelming pressure.

Before the shaken Lin Xi could identify it.

The bullet chat had already recognized the thing and instantly exploded:

"Serves you right, meow! Serves you right!"

"It's a Ghost Leviathan! One of the most aggressive Leviathans. The streamer is doomed!"

"It looks even bigger than the cyclops right now. So terrifying."

"Did it just try to bite the bow? Good thing Xi-bao dodged, or the bow would've been crushed!"

"Run, Xi-bao!!!"

"She can't outrun it. This thing is faster than the cyclops! Even with a speed boost, she can't shake it!"