Heart of the Ocean (19): The Lost City

The small town on this island wasn’t very large, with only a little over a thousand indigenous households, so the number of players participating in the instance wasn’t high either—just two hundred. Compared to the large-scale instance Tan Xiao had joined before, the number of players in this survival scenario could be considered quite small.  

However, after more than ten days of enduring natural disasters and human calamities, only fewer than half of the two hundred players remained.  

The players knew the inside story and had skills, but the natives had numbers and geographical advantages. This was clearly some kind of balance deliberately set by the game.  

But now, the game had changed again. Xu Xu heard the system’s announcement.  

[Special map detected—updating current mission difficulty… Re-evaluating mission rank… Evaluation complete. Difficulty upgraded to Hell Level.]  

[Special Map: The Lost City]  

[Main mission updated: Survive for 30 days → Discover the past of the Lost City and escape.]  

Xu Xu’s expression darkened. With the mission change, the previous task of finding the monster was canceled. The new main mission might seem simpler, but without a time limit, it could actually be far more dangerous.  

Moreover, the Hell Level difficulty came with a particularly ruthless rule—he could no longer use his revival card.  

(In special instances, all system items are disabled, including revival cards.)  

At this moment, he deeply regretted not using the revival card earlier. Now that it was disabled, if he died in this instance, he would truly perish in real life as well.  

But such was life—no matter how much you planned, fate always had the final say. Regret was useless now.  

With no chance of revival, he completely changed his previous approach, becoming far more cautious. He anxiously scanned his surroundings, eager to complete the Lost City mission as quickly as possible.  

This time, Tan Xiao finally saw the notification about the increased difficulty as well. Before coming here, he had also bought a revival card, but he had never used it.  

Now that the revival card was disabled, he wasn’t particularly upset. Instead, his mind wandered: Since the instance no longer had a time limit, did that mean he had more time to complete the mission? It also meant he could stay with Wen Yi longer.  

Every time they undertook a mission, the time they spent together was always too short. Even if they could meet again in the next instance, what if something went wrong? This time, a longer companionship was better than gambling on the next reunion.  

With this mindset, Tan Xiao remained calm, seeing no downside to the map change.  

However, with the revival card disabled, he had to consider his survival. When the map switched, he had stored a large amount of food in his inventory. If that became unusable, he’d have to worry about starving before even finishing the mission.  

Luckily, after testing it out, he found that the instance had only disabled items that could forcibly exit the scenario—meaning players couldn’t escape early. Their inventory functions and innate skills still worked normally.

He took out some human food and a can of dog food, then belatedly remembered he needed to find Xiao Bai and Wen Yi.  

In reality, less than two minutes had passed since Tan Xiao woke up. After packing his things, he finally took a proper look at his surroundings.  

Due to the island’s upheaval, the area he was in had broken away from the main landmass. The players and islanders hadn’t sunk into the sea along with the town—instead, they’d been dragged by a strange whirlpool into another zone: the Lost City mentioned in the system prompt.  

It was then that Tan Xiao, still in his diving suit, realized they weren’t on land at all, but in an entirely unfamiliar underwater city.  

This Lost City was built from all kinds of stacked stone blocks—mysterious and magnificent structures submerged in the deep. But the most striking features were the twelve colossal pillars, impossible to miss, scattered across different sections of the city, holding up its grand architecture.  

The pillars were easily over a hundred meters tall, stretching from the “ground” all the way to the “sky.” Tan Xiao glanced downward—he was still about ten meters above the base.  

Between the twelve giant pillars stood numerous smaller stone structures. The area around Tan Xiao’s little clearing was surrounded by a forest of uneven stone formations.  

Unlike the smooth, flat surfaces of the massive pillars, these stones were jagged and irregular—some twisted into bizarre shapes, some towering high, others low, with some areas densely packed and others sparse.  

A few of the connected stones bore clear signs of carving, with man-made caves hollowed out inside. However, those caves appeared devoid of life.  

But just because he couldn’t see anything didn’t mean nothing was there. Perhaps deeper within some of the caves dwelled the residents of the Lost City.  

With the map now elevated to Hell Level, the danger likely came from these very inhabitants.  

There were faint traces of past life in the Lost City, though they seemed ancient. Tan Xiao could see fish, shrimp, and corals fossilized in the stone directly ahead of him—long dead, preserved for who knew how many centuries.  

When he looked up, there was no longer a blue sky or white clouds—just seawater, with deep-sea fish swimming lazily overhead.  

The twelve towering pillars seemed to form some kind of barrier, or perhaps there was a special force field at play. Humans could see the enormous sea creatures moving above them, yet none of the fish swam freely within the stone city itself.  

Tan Xiao was still wearing his diving suit, oxygen tank strapped to his back, but he didn’t feel the crushing pressure that should come with deep-sea submersion.  

Though he’d never gone deep diving before, he had common sense—this didn’t feel like being underwater.  

Quickly, he pulled a fire-starting device from his system inventory and tried lighting a flame. It worked.  

He experimentally lifted his helmet’s visor—no drowning, no suffocation. He could breathe normal air.  

Immediately, he shut off his oxygen supply, conserving what little remained in his tank.

This Lost City was truly extraordinary. Despite being underwater, Tan Xiao could breathe freely like a human on land. Yet, as he scanned the area, he saw no trace of greenery. Normally, even if the city were encased in some kind of dome, the oxygen should have been depleted long ago.  

The deep sea was supposed to be pitch black, but the Lost City was illuminated by countless structures resembling lighthouses. Atop each stood light bulbs—no, not bulbs, but luminous pearls larger than a human head, glowing brilliantly in the depths and casting light across the entire area. There was no sun or moon here, yet the city was as bright as daylight on the surface.  

Except this light carried none of the sun’s warmth. It was cold, sterile, utterly devoid of heat.  

Tan Xiao rubbed his stiff arms, belatedly registering the chill. In such frigid conditions, no matter how robust his physique, wearing such thin clothing was unsustainable. The diving suit helped underwater but offered no insulation. He quickly pulled out a thick coat from his inventory and bundled himself up.  

Once his body warmed, his mind sharpened again. Finally, he remembered the most urgent task at hand: Find Xiao Bai and Wen Yi immediately!  

He didn’t spare much attention for the city’s peculiar architecture, instead scanning every corner of his surroundings.  

Luckily, his fortune held. After five minutes of searching, he spotted Xiao Bai perched on a massive boulder adjacent to his own.  

Now, Tan Xiao almost wished the Lost City had seawater—at least then he could swim over. Instead, a five- or six-meter gap separated them, with no connecting path. One misstep, and he’d plummet straight down.  

He tossed a small, unimportant stone outward. It dropped straight down, landing with a loud thud.  

Oxygen levels, normal. Gravity, normal.  

The sound startled Xiao Bai. Before Tan Xiao could devise a plan, the little dog eagerly bounded toward him.  

“Xiao Bai, careful!”  

Seeing the pup’s stubby legs about to step into open air, Tan Xiao shouted a warning.  

Xiao Bai skidded to a halt, gauging the distance to his owner, then whined twice.  

He wasn’t strong enough yet—if he were, he could’ve made the leap easily. But right now, he had no confidence in clearing the gap.  

“Wait there. Let me see if I have a long rope.”

When Tan Xiao had packed his supplies, he had thrown in all sorts of miscellaneous items. Anticipating emergencies, he had stuffed as much as he could into the largest storage box the system allowed—though exploiting the system’s limits came with its own restrictions.  

His backpack could hold one large storage crate, but to access its contents, he needed enough space to place the entire crate. Fortunately, the clearing he was in was spacious enough. He set the crate down and rummaged through it for anything useful.  

After digging around for a while, he actually found a sufficiently long rope. Testing its durability, he measured out roughly five or six meters, tied a weight to one end, and hurled it toward Xiao Bai’s position with all his might.  

“Woof woof!”  

The other end of the rope landed successfully near Xiao Bai. The little dog clamped his jaws around it, wrapped his paws tightly around the line, and even looped it around himself a few times for extra security—triple insurance, absolutely foolproof.  

Tan Xiao began pulling the rope in quickly, swiftly reeling Xiao Bai across the five-meter gap to his side.  

A flawless success on the first try. Tan Xiao exhaled in relief, a smile breaking across his face.  

Xiao Bai barked excitedly in response.  

“Xiao Bai, have you seen Wen Yi?”  

Finding Xiao Bai was a stroke of luck, but Wen Yi—who should have been right beside him—was nowhere to be seen. The thought made Tan Xiao’s anxiety spike.  

Compared to the main quest, what he truly wanted was to find Wen Yi.  

Xiao Bai shook his head: No.  

The two of them searched the area thoroughly, scouring every nook and cranny, but there was no trace of Wen Yi.  

The Lost City was vast. The townsfolk and other teams from the original island had been scattered. In the distance, Tan Xiao spotted two figures—both locals from the town.  

Some of the residents had been less fortunate. A few had carelessly moved around in this zone, and one had even woken up on a narrow, precarious stone pillar, only to slip and plummet to the ground below, shattering into a bloody mess.  

The corpses were mangled beyond recognition, their deaths gruesome. Tan Xiao, with his sharp eyesight, took one glance and immediately averted his gaze, unable to bear the sight.  

He was deeply worried about Wen Yi, but Wen Yi wasn’t like these ordinary people. After all, Wen Yi’s true form was a soft-bodied jellyfish—one with countless tentacles.  

Even if caught off guard, those tentacles could latch onto the rocks, preventing a fatal fall like the others.  

After waiting in place for half an hour with no sign of Wen Yi, Tan Xiao decided he couldn’t just sit around. He left behind a jellyfish-shaped marker and an arrow for the absent-minded lighthouse jellyfish, then turned to Xiao Bai. “Let’s go find Wen Yi!”  

“Xiao Bai, can you smell Wen Yi’s scent?”  

Dogs were supposed to have keen noses, and Xiao Bai was no exception—or so he hoped.  

Xiao Bai shook his head, indicating he lacked that ability. Or perhaps Wen Yi simply wasn’t in the nearby area.  

Tan Xiao took a deep breath and decided to trust his instincts. “Let’s head south.”  

He believed in his bond with Wen Yi—they would reunite soon!  

The stone pillars appeared close, but distances here were deceptive. Some pillars weren’t connected, forcing detours or requiring special tools to traverse gaps. Moving across this terrain was nothing like walking on flat ground, slowing Tan Xiao’s progress significantly.  

Meanwhile, ten kilometers away in a straight line, a certain lighthouse jellyfish awoke inside a familiar structure.  

Tan Xiao’s intuition was eerily accurate. This building was located due south—specifically, atop the largest stone pillar in that direction, inside a temple hovering in the air.  

The Lost City had no living native inhabitants, but this place was haunted by trapped spirits.  

These ghosts, stripped of their memories from life, wandered the temple endlessly, bound by their lingering obsessions. They were also one of the most dangerous threats in this special map.  

The spirits were the ancestors of the island’s residents, but they showed no mercy even to their own descendants. The Lost City treated all intruders equally—whether locals or players, any living being had only one fate: death. They would become sacrifices offered by the ghosts to their deity.  

The spirits guarded the core temple of the Lost City, and when Wen Yi awoke, it found itself inside the grandest of these temples.  

It looked left and right but saw no sign of Tan Xiao. When the two had fallen into the sea, it had wrapped its tentacles tightly around Tan Xiao—only for those tentacles to be severed! It had been forcibly separated from its beloved.  

The furious jellyfish paid no mind to its lost tentacles. Its first priority was finding its owner. But things wouldn’t be so easy. The moment it stepped out of the temple, a horde of ghosts surrounded it.