Meng Hao stared wide-eyed at Zhao Yao before clarifying, "You have the power … to control fishes?" After all, Zhao Yao was playing an instrumental role throughout the entire episode. It was hard not to believe so.
Zhao Yao simply replied with a cackle and responded, "I guess it"s better if I keep my power a secret, so stop asking me about it. You guys have been swimming the entire journey. Coupled with the bad weather, you are bound to fall sick. You won"t even be able to compete at the end of the day."
Meng Hao bit his lips and nodded his head. Actually, he was raging with fury that someone was taking the limelight away from him by saving more people and winning more hearts. However, he managed to put on a front and revealed a beaming smile, "Bro, thank you so much for your help. If not for you, I would be dead even if I managed to get to the island."
With that, Meng Hao began waving his arms frantically in the air, gesturing them towards Zhao Yao. However, Zhao Yao suddenly held onto his arm and exclaimed, "Wait!"
Tens of people stared at him open-mouthed. Zhao Yao was trembling with excitement when he saw the plethora of exclamation marks floating by the sea. With his most amiable smile, he looked towards them and asked, "Do all of you need my help?"
"Of course!"
"Let us join you!"
"It"s freezing!"
Immediately, Zhao Yao"s BOOK was inundated with tens of missions. The objective remained the same - rescue them to the island. Zhao Yao stared at the experience points before accepting the mission one by one, stretching his smile from one ear to another.
Xiao Yu observed Zhao Yao"s expression and scoffed, "He"s just rescuing someone. Why does he have to smile like some pervert?"
Soon enough, the fishes began propelling the cats forward by producing an enormous undercurrent in the sea. However, the undercurrent somehow seemed to miss Meng Hao and his three companions, leaving them floating at the exact same spot. They knew that something was amiss as they watched everyone, but themselves, traveling towards the island.
His chest tightened with fear when he swept his head around and realized that the four of them were the only ones left, stranded back there.
Meng Hao tried his best to suppress the anger exploding within him, "Bro, could you kindly get your fish to help us too?"
Meanwhile, Zhao Yao was still communicating with the Serval cat, "Do not help the four of them without my orders." Zhao Yao shook his head dejectedly when he noticed the absence of his favorite punctuation, "Bro, have you ever watched Dragon Ball?"
Meng Hao"s forehead creased together as he replied, "Yeah."
"That will make it a lot easier to explain. The fishes that I call upon are similar to the Flying Nimbus. Only the pure-hearted individuals are allowed to receive their help. Even a tinge of evil thoughts would render you incompatible with them."
Meng Hao"s jaw went slack when he heard those absurd claims, "Bro, are you joking with me?"
"Why would I ever joke about something as serious as this?" Zhao Yao pinched the bridge of his nose before continuing, "Just try asking for my help whole-heartedly without even a trace of evil thoughts. I"m sure the fishes will help you the moment you do so."
Meng Hao"s fingers began trembling with anger. He did not want to go on his knees with all those eyes staring at him. How would the others regard him if he resorted to this? However, his companions were already shuddering violently from the cold and began stuttering, "Please … please rescue us."
Zhao Yao"s eyes lit up with excitement when he saw the exclamation mark sprang up above one guy"s head. He thought, "I guess it only works when they truly require my help."
Immediately, a school of fishes produced a tremendous undercurrent which propelled that guy forward, towards the rest of the people. A smile crept up his face as he roared, "Boss, it works! Just ask with sincerity!"
The two other guys immediately followed suit and were rendered the help which they needed, leaving the despondent Meng Hao all alone. He finally relented, "Can you please help me?"
Zhao Yao took a glance at him but shook his head in despair, "You are filled with too many evil thoughts. My fishes don"t even dare to come near to you."
Meng Hao"s pulse slammed with fury as he cursed in his head, "F*cker, you are the one filled with evil thoughts! You mother f*cker!"
His companions began screaming at him, "Boss, you just have to ask earnestly!"
"Yes! Concentrate all your thoughts on it and don"t think about anything else. Show the fishes your conviction!"
"R*tard." Meng Hao never believed a single word Zhao Yao muttered. All along, he had suspected that the man in the black robes was simply toying with them.
He looked towards the people ahead and realized that all of them had slid him a guarded look as if he were truly filled with evil thoughts and intentions. How could that possibly happen? All his previous efforts in recruiting the apostles and supercats would simply go down the drain!
Surrounded by intense gaze and his subordinates" screams, his brain was about to explode with fury. He could only ball his fists together and suppressed his anger before looking towards Zhao Yao and asked again, "I"m begging you, can you please just save me?"
Finally, Zhao Yao saw the exclamation mark which he had been waiting for. His mouth curled into a smile as he replied, "Good kid, come join us."
Suddenly, a huge undercurrent acc.u.mulated beneath Meng Hao before pus.h.i.+ng him forward. However, a sudden vortex erupted from beneath, sending Meng Hao cras.h.i.+ng into the water surface.
Meng Hao"s teeth chattered violently from both the cold and anger. He stared daggers at Zhao Yao and screamed, "Bro, what"s the meaning of that?"
Zhao Yao was filled with remorse as he accidentally canceled the mission. Obviously, he could not tell Meng Hao the truth. He could only come up with a lame excuse before explaining, "The fishes suddenly detected a sudden surge of evil thoughts which resulted in that. I"m advising you to give up on these thoughts and to turn over a new leaf."
A hint of fear crossed their eyes when the others heard Zhao Yao"s words. They even began paddling away to distance themselves away from Meng Hao.
Meng Hao was on the verge of killing Zhao Yao after a few futile attempts before the fishes finally rescued him.
He realized that everyone was keeping a distance away from him. That alone caused fury to pour through his body. He truly did not harbor any evil thoughts in his head. All there was were simply anger, anger, and more anger.
All in all, Zhao Yao managed to save 50 apostles and 40 supercats from the rough waters as he brought them safely to the sh.o.r.es.
This short trip instantly earned Zhao Yao close to 1000 experience points, changing his BOOK to lv5(2558/10000). Just looking at it caused Zhao Yao to beam from ear to ear.
With his explosive power, the teenager with the Siamese cat was naturally the first ones to reach the island. He slid a condescending glare at the bunch of fools Zhao Yao rescued and scoffed, "Lame."
He was also an apostle working alongside Inspector Ho. Naturally, he had details about the compet.i.tion which Zhao Yao had.
He knew that Inspector Ho would never put these innocent lives at risk. Hence, he had altered his strategy to align with this key idea.
From his perspective, this "accident" was simply a sieve to eliminate the apostles with inferior strength, determination, and even personality. To him, what Zhao Yao did was simply a waste of effort. It was only a matter of time before these people were eliminated by the upcoming compet.i.tion.
With more and more people arriving at the beach, they soon realized a weird phenomenon - there was a clear distinction along the beach separating the contestants into two groups.