Chapter 310: Arrest! 'Creator's Game!

Chapter 310: Chapter 173: Arrest! ‘Creator’s Game!

White.

So white.

Incredibly white.

Before his eyes, it was as if he had plunged into an endless white fog. Layers of mist appeared, one stacked upon another, obscuring all vision.

He couldn’t see his hand in front of his face. Aside from a fleeting glimpse of black, all that remained was white.

Zhou Hou’s eyes were open, but his cataract-like pupils were unfocused. Like mere ornaments, they stared blankly ahead.

He reached out, fumbling forward.

“Where are you trying to go…”

“Without a specific route, we really can’t take you to a designated location…”

Watching Zhou Hou head out, a middle-aged man in the cockpit stammered, his body trembling.

His name was Liu Wenbing. He was forty-four years old, the captain of the fishing vessel Golden Scale.

This was the Golden Scale, a large, brand-new fishing vessel, currently adrift on the sea, tossing on the rolling waves.

Zhou Hou’s footsteps halted.

He reached out a hand to steady himself against the sheet-metal wall. Without turning his head, he remained silent for a long moment before a harsh sound rasped from his throat, like air escaping a torn sack.

“I want to go to the ‘Celestial Kingdom’.”

“Boss, this is the real world. There’s no such thing as a Celestial Kingdom.”

Captain Liu Wenbing was on the verge of tears from anxiety. He glanced at his side.

Beside him stood several monsters that looked as though they had walked straight out of Hell—including, of all things, an ape!

An ape covered in thick fur, with long, slender limbs.

They stood right behind Liu Wenbing, looking as if they would surge forward and tear him to shreds at the slightest provocation.

“Set sail. To the Celestial Kingdom!”

Zhou Hou spoke again, his voice turning somewhat menacing.

“Alright, alright, alright, to the Celestial Kingdom we go…”

Liu Wenbing was truly frantic. His mind raced, burning with anxiety, as he tried to figure out how to get his phone back or if he should just abandon ship and run. But they were armed; escape wasn’t a sure thing…

“But… you have to at least have a nautical chart, right?”

“Boss, sir, there’s no chart, no navigation, you don’t even know what continent or country it’s on…”

“Even if the Golden Scale sails to the ends of the earth, we’ll never find it…”

A bitter smile appeared on Liu Wenbing’s face.

For this voyage, not even counting the fish, just the payment for smuggling these people had netted him a full fifty thousand yuan!

‘Damn, fifty thousand! That’s five years’ salary for an ordinary person, assuming they didn’t eat or drink!’

He had thought it was an easy gig, but who could have expected…

After they set sail, he realized he’d fallen into a trap.

The ship… had been seized.

This metal boat, sailing on the boundless sea, was now under Zhou Hou’s control!

He had just bought the boat and hadn’t had time to recruit a new crew. Since this was a shady job, there were only two or three of them, leaving no room to resist.

“You could at least point us in a direction, couldn’t you?”

Liu Wenbing said, grimacing.

Zhou Hou was silent. After a moment, he slowly uttered a few words.

“I want to go to the Celestial Kingdom.”

With that, Zhou Hou fumbled his way out of the control room.

He couldn’t see, or rather, he couldn’t see clearly. He was just like a blind man.

Yes, just like everyone else around him.

That’s right. All of them were blind. However, Zhou Hou wasn’t completely sightless; he could still make out blurry shapes and tell which way was which…

What is a blind person’s world like?

Black. A boundless black, as if one were in outer space but without the sprinkle of stars, floating in a void.

The physical aspect wasn’t the hardest part. The true torment was the loneliness and terror in one’s heart.

Zhou Hou couldn’t see any of that. He could only see a vast, white fog.

But Zhou Hou was already used to it.

He stood in the corridor, leaning against the wall, and fumbled for something behind him. He then pulled out a long, straight object.

Zhou Hou gently placed it to his lips, and a sound echoed in the corridor.

“Woooo~”

A piercing note from a xiao tore through the air, like the onslaught of an autumn gale or the howling of a winter wind—utterly dissonant.

The sound echoed in the enclosed corridor, slowly drifting into the distance.

Zhou Hou’s ears twitched. He pulled his hand back from the wall and started walking forward.

He could not see.

But that didn’t mean he had no way to walk or find his way.

Playing his tune, he slowly made his way toward the deck.

Actually, Zhou Hou had been able to see once, at the very beginning.

That was until he was taken to the so-called ‘Celestial Kingdom’.

It was a paradise for some, but for people like Zhou Hou, it was Hell.

How many years ago was that?

Zhou Hou had forgotten.

Blind and lame, he had long since lost track of time’s passage. Every minute, every second, was the same agonizing torment.

CREAK~

Sitting on the deck, Zhou Hou felt the howling sea wind on his face.

He began to stare into space.

Scenes from his past life, colorful images he now found incredibly precious, surfaced in his mind.

Back then, Zhou Hou had been just a monkey trainer.

He had three monkeys. They were all very clever, able to understand his words and perform tricks.

He still remembered that the craft had been passed down from his father, as had the monkeys. When his father died, he became the new monkey trainer.

Life was good at first. Every time he performed, crowds would gather, and tips would come one after another.

Until later…

The television appeared. The computer appeared. The VCD appeared.

People had more abundant forms of entertainment. Monkey training, Chinese opera, plays, circuses—these kinds of amusements gradually lost their audience.

Chinese opera was lucky; it had official support and became an intangible cultural heritage. But where could a monkey trainer go?

Zhou Hou didn’t know. He took his monkeys and fled to Jiangsan City to make a living there.

However, life in Jiangsan City wasn’t easy either. Although the entertainment options there were less developed, the residents had grown immune to monkey shows, finding them uninteresting.

Until one day…

A man in a suit came looking for him.