WTNL Chapter 576

Lucky Cruise Ship
Chapter 576: Hunting down the croupiers

“…”

Wen Jianyan looked at her deeply. After a long while, he finally spoke, “Does it not matter even if you die?”

“It doesn’t matter even if I die.”

Wen Ya was extremely calm and also extremely frank.

This wasn’t a dispute of spirit, nor did it have anything to do with self-esteem or selfishness. This was the realization of every person destined to die.

To be numb and kept like livestock, or to struggle and seize?

To choose a slow death, or to fight with all one’s might for a sliver of life?

Without white bones, the stairs to victory cannot be forged; without fresh blood, the road to freedom cannot be paved.

This is a truth that has never changed throughout the ages.

“Okay,” Wen Jianyan said.

Wen Ya smiled. The smile pulled at the wounds on her face, making her look somewhat ferocious, but her eyes were shining.

“The Captain’s Dinner will start in less than two hours. I’ll hurry and recover. See you later.”

Three days ago, the Captain’s Dinner ended with Wen Jianyan and Dan Zhu joining hands to kill Eaton Ethan. However, Eaton Ethan’s death did not bring a brief peace. Almost in the next second, a man calling himself Alex took his place and announced that the ball would be held again in three days.

The auction lasted for a total of three days, which meant that tonight happened to be the time for the make-up Captain’s Dinner.

Having finished speaking, Wen Ya turned and left.

Wen Jianyan stood quietly in place for a few seconds, lowering his eyes.

He lifted his sleeve. On his wrist, the ferocious wound had formed a brown, ugly scab, like a thorny vine winding under his skin.

Perhaps because this Captain’s Dinner was a make-up session, it did not appear in the live broadcast tasks.

However, like last time, the Captain’s Dinner was still held in the lobby on the first floor of the Lucky Cruise.

The lobby was brightly lit, and the floor was waxed, so smooth and bright that it seemed to reflect people’s figures. The blood, corpses, and severed limbs from last time were nowhere to be found, as if the blood spilled and the people who died here before were just a distant illusion.

Looking around, the number of anchors had decreased significantly. Roughly estimated, at least two-thirds of the people had disappeared. They might have died or lost the ability to attend.

But even so, the overall number was still considerable.

After all, as an entertainment venue that was once open to all anchors, no one expected the Lucky Cruise to turn into an instance so unexpectedly. Therefore, the number of anchors forced to stay far exceeded that of a large-scale instance.

With the experience from last time, to be safe, all anchors attended in formal attire this time.

“Is everything arranged on Ji Guan’s side?” Wen Jianyan asked.

Chen Mo: “En. We prepared enough points and items to basically handle eighty percent of unexpected situations.”

Ji Guan’s current condition indeed made him unable to attend such an occasion. Even if he did attend, the harm would likely outweigh the benefit. Plus, this Captain’s Dinner was not mandatory, so he stayed in the cabin.

While the group was talking, ambiguous and meaningful gazes were cast from all directions, looking this way either covertly or boldly.

“Many people are looking at us…” Blond frowned and whispered.

The gauze was too obvious, so the injured eye was covered with an eye patch. He squinted his remaining eye as if sensitive to light, the pupil still completely red.

“En.” Wen Jianyan acted as if he hadn’t noticed the gazes from all around, just shrugging. “I know.”

There was no helping it. He was successfully auctioned off right under everyone’s noses, and now he appeared grandly in front of the public again. It was hard not to attract everyone’s attention.

“You guys look really pathetic.”

A familiar voice came from behind.

Wen Jianyan turned his head and saw Qi Qian and his group walking towards them.

Qi Qian’s gaze fell on Chen Cheng, pointedly.

Chen Cheng leaned lazily against the side, his expression listless. Although he hadn’t suffered any injuries on the negative fourth floor before, he was obviously exhausted. Facing ridicule like Qi Qian’s, he only swept a fiery glance at him, unable to muster the energy to retort.

“As for you…” Qi Qian looked Wen Jianyan up and down, then suddenly smiled. “I knew the auction wouldn’t trap you.”

Wen Jianyan: “I’ll take that as a blessing.”

Qi Qian looked at him deeply and said, “I have to say, the commotion your team caused was too big.”

This was no exaggeration.

This didn’t just refer to Wen Jianyan being successfully auctioned off at the auction; their actions on the negative fourth floor were no secret either.

The negative third floor served as a welfare floor. Unless actively triggered, there wasn’t much danger. So, as time went on, more and more anchors had entered the negative fourth floor and the horse racing track. Among these anchors, there was no lack of capable individuals.

Ji Guan’s method of clearing the level was shocking, and he won the championship in full view of the public. It was hard not to attract too much attention.

“Be careful,” Qi Qian looked at him steadily and said, “You have already attracted too much unwanted attention.”

Not far away, Chen Cheng snorted coldly to show his contempt.

Qi Qian seemed too lazy to argue with him. After dropping this sentence, he said no more and turned to leave with his team members.

“What about you guys next?” After Qi Qian walked away, Chen Cheng asked lazily, “When are you going to the negative fifth floor?”

Since they got the pass to the next floor from the negative fourth floor, the most natural thing was to go to the negative fifth floor—at least that was what Chen Cheng planned to do next.

But unexpectedly, Wen Jianyan pondered for a few seconds and said, “No.”

Chen Cheng was stunned. Even the other members of Wen Jianyan’s team were surprised, obviously not expecting Wen Jianyan to give such an answer.

“At least not for now,” Wen Jianyan said.

“Hmm.” Chen Cheng looked at Wen Jianyan thoughtfully. “Alright then.”

He shrugged and didn’t press further.

Originally, they were not teammates. With the same interests and goals, naturally, they took what they needed. If their goals and interests were inconsistent, he wouldn’t force it—of course, if there was such an opportunity in the future, Chen Cheng wouldn’t refuse it either.

He waved his hand: “I’m leaving first. Contact me if anything comes up.”

After speaking, Chen Cheng also turned and left.

Chen Mo looked at Wen Jianyan and frowned, “Are we not going to the negative fifth floor next?”

It was precisely because they knew Wen Jianyan had to continue downwards that he took a risky move to snatch the championship of the negative fourth floor. But after getting the pass, Wen Jianyan wasn’t going down?

“En.”

Wen Jianyan nodded.

He took a deep breath and looked at the group in front of him. “If I’m not mistaken… there is a high probability that Oracle is also still stuck on the negative fifth floor.”

The negative seventh floor was the auction venue, below the negative seventh floor was the accommodation area, and negative first to negative sixth floors were the casino’s territory.

If Oracle had already entered the negative sixth floor, it meant they were not far from the goal of this trip, and naturally, they would concentrate all their energy on overcoming the difficulties—after all, no matter what, this was an SS-rank instance. No matter how Oracle cheated, they couldn’t easily cross such a difficulty gap—but Oracle didn’t do that. Instead, they tried to obstruct their actions on the negative fourth floor.

This revealed a signal:

Oracle and their group were probably not going as smoothly as imagined. That was why they tried to delay Wen Jianyan’s progress in this way.

“Once we go down to the negative fifth floor, I’m afraid we will be immediately ambushed by Oracle, and we know nothing about the negative fifth floor.”

The atmosphere among the group sank.

They understood this logic too, but such a disadvantage couldn’t be reversed, and Oracle’s decisions couldn’t be influenced. They could only act according to the situation.

“So, I have an idea.”

Wen Jianyan looked at the people in front of him. His gaze met Wen Ya’s briefly.

Her gaze was like water, calm and gentle, seeming to wait for him to make a decision.

Wen Jianyan took a deep breath, looked away, and said word by word:

“—Hunt the dealers.”

“?!” This answer was truly too shocking. The people present couldn’t help but gasp, except for Wen Ya, who curved her eyes and gave him a silent smile.

Wen Jianyan took out the pigeon-blood red agate stone found on Dealer [No. 9] from his pocket and briefly explained his speculation and thoughts. The group listened carefully, their eyes gradually lighting up—they realized almost immediately that this was an excellent opportunity.

Negative first to negative sixth floors were Mesters’ territory. Once they obtained privileges on Mesters’ side through the agate stone, it meant they would gain a far greater advantage than imagined in the upcoming confrontation with Oracle!

“A total of ten core dealers, does that mean there will be ten fragments?” Chen Mo asked.

“Possibly,” Wen Jianyan rubbed the agate stone in his hand and said slowly, “But I lean towards no.”

He had touched the agate stone at the top of Figaro’s cane. Its volume wasn’t large. If this one of Mesters’ was similar in size, then at most three fragments should be needed.

But the problem was, out of a total of ten dealers, which three carried such stones?

This answer was currently unclear.

From any angle, this was an extremely risky move.

Indeed, confronting Oracle head-on was very dangerous.

But compared to hunting ten core dealers, the former still had a higher chance of winning—up to now, the dealers they encountered were not ranked very high, yet that had already overwhelmed them… If the lower-ranked ones were like this, what about the top three?

The difficulty was almost immeasurable.

Just as the group was discussing in low voices, suddenly, a polite and cold voice came from not far away:

“Good evening, everyone.”

In an instant, the continuous buzzing in the hall stopped. All anchors stopped talking tacitly and turned their heads to look in the direction of the voice.

The person who came was the successor calling himself Alex.

“As Eaton Ethan’s successor and also the organizer of this dinner, I express my apologies to everyone for the failure of the last dinner,” Alex said. “I hope everyone will have a better sailing experience this time, and I will serve you wholeheartedly.”

While Alex was speaking, Wen Jianyan scanned the hall unobtrusively.

Like the last dinner, Oracle was still absent. This wasn’t strange. After all, according to Wen Jianyan’s guess, just the crisis on the negative fifth floor was enough to exhaust them. However, what surprised Wen Jianyan was that Dan Zhu was also absent.

Dan Zhu’s presence was too strong. As long as she was there, she would definitely attract everyone’s attention like a magnetic field. But this time, in the huge hall, only that eye-catching figure was missing.

Wen Jianyan frowned slightly, wondering what he thought of.

Not far away, Alex’s speech had reached the final stage:

“…Alright, my nonsense ends here. Next, please take your seats.”

This time, there were no waiters serving the Wine of Death. All anchors were directly ushered to their seats. Even so, everyone still dared not relax their vigilance in the slightest. They straightened their backs, ready to deal with any crisis that might appear next.

Waiters in crisp uniforms filed in, placing silver trays in front of the customers and thoughtfully lifting the covers with white-gloved hands.

Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes and looked at the dinner plate in front of him.

The roses from last time did not appear again.

Replacing them was a dish complete with color, aroma, and taste. Even before he tasted it, just from observation, one could tell that this dish was extremely luxurious in both ingredients and cooking.

Wen Jianyan remembered that in the last dinner, these foods also contained traps—if dishes related to fish were eaten, one would be specifically targeted by corpses at night.

But…

Strangely, this time, every dish was very normal, not even a single seafood product.

Wen Jianyan held the knife and fork, skillfully cutting the food into small portions, but his thoughts had already drifted far away.

To some extent, this dinner confirmed his previous guess.

The crisis they encountered at the last dinner was highly likely unrelated to the instance’s own rules and basic framework, but merely Eaton Ethan’s personal interest. After the manager changed, the danger naturally disappeared along with it.

However… this brought a new problem.

Wen Jianyan put a piece of beef into his mouth. It was clearly tender and juicy with distinct texture, but he was absent-minded, and it tasted like chewing wax.

The NPCs in this instance seemed to have greater power and freer boundaries of action than imagined.

Is it just because this instance was formed temporarily?

Moreover, according to a series of clues, these NPCs existed before the instance took shape… so who exactly are they?

Characters created by the Nightmare itself?

Not quite like it. Not only the management, but every dealer here had their own name and very prominent personality traits, not like puppets created by the Nightmare for a single function.

Former anchors?

Also, not quite like it. Although anchors integrating into the instance and becoming one of them wasn’t unprecedented, they didn’t lose their minds like those people, becoming mere minions driven by the instance’s consciousness. Instead, they coexisted peacefully with other anchors in the anchor space for a long time. More importantly, Figaro said he had never seen these names on the leaderboard, nor had he seen these people among the anchor group. If he even knew the Captain’s true identity, there was no reason not to know the others’. Figaro had no need to lie to him about such things.

From any perspective, the instance [Lucky Cruise] was extremely special. Various situations seemed unanswerable by past experience—was this simply because it was a newly formed instance?

Wen Jianyan didn’t think so.

He intuitively felt that he had touched the core of the problem, but seemed to lack some crucial element to unravel these mysteries.

During Wen Jianyan’s wandering thoughts, the dinner soon ended.

Waiters in uniforms entered the hall again to clear their plates.

If he remembered correctly, the ball would begin next.

Sure enough, melodious music began to drift, but this time, it seemed to be just ordinary music without the eerie magic of controlling corpses.

This Captain’s Dinner seemed a bit excessively normal, almost as if it was genuinely considering them as passengers. Both the meal and the ball were impeccable, without a hint of danger.

Just that simple?

Just as Wen Jianyan was puzzled, suddenly, the phone in his pocket vibrated twice.

“…”

Wen Jianyan took out his phone, glanced at it, and couldn’t help but be stunned.

The person who sent the message was actually Figaro.

This was the first time Figaro had actively contacted him.

Why?

Wen Jianyan frowned and clicked on the other party’s chat box.

“My payment has arrived, but only half ^^”

Wen Jianyan: “…” He even used a smiley face symbol; how disgusting.

And what does receiving payment have to do with him—

Wen Jianyan suddenly paused, his pupils contracting abruptly.

Wait a minute.

He seemed to suddenly realize something.

Before executing the plan, Wen Jianyan had carefully asked Figaro about the auction mechanism.

Although buyers could only obtain the precious auction items they bid for after the auction ended, in fact, from the moment the item was bid for, the transaction was already counted as completed.

In a sense, this was also a kind of unfair clause.

For example, the [Dead Sea Scrolls], although stolen before being delivered to the buyer and the Gentleman didn’t get the auction item, it didn’t mean he could avoid paying—and precisely because he didn’t want to see this happen, he tried every means to interfere.

It was also precisely because of this mechanism that Figaro happily agreed to cooperate with Wen Jianyan—because regardless of whether Wen Jianyan escaped or succeeded in escaping, he as the “seller” would make money.

The last day of the auction had ended.

If the payment arrived in full, it meant that in the game between the buyer and the auction, the auction had the upper hand, and the buyer had to comply with the unfair clauses on the cruise ship, forced to spend money on nothing.

If not a single cent of the payment arrived, it meant that in the game between the buyer and the auction, the buyer had the advantage, so the auction had to issue a full refund.

Wen Jianyan suddenly realized that the message Figaro just sent was less of a debt collection and more of a subtle reminder.

Only half of the payment arrived.

What did this signify?

Recalling the heavily wrapped second-floor boxes he saw at the auction before, Wen Jianyan suddenly felt a chill run up his spine.

—It signifies that the power gap between the auction and the buyer is not large.

Thus, they reached a certain degree of reconciliation.

Almost at the moment Wen Jianyan figured out the connection, Alex’s calm voice came from overhead not far away: “The ball is about to begin, and this time, we will welcome new VIPs! Please enjoy tonight to the fullest!”

Not far away, the closed doors creaked and slowly opened.

An indescribable chilly aura swept in from outside. It was a coldness unrelated to physical laws, clinging to the skin and bones like ants, gnawing deeper bit by bit, as if to devour all the heat in their bodies.

The lights overhead clearly weren’t interfered with, but were invaded by invisible darkness.

One, two, three… several figures walked in slowly from outside the door.

They were wrapped in black fabric from head to toe, not revealing an inch of skin. Even their faces were covered with pitch-black masks. Just like that, they walked silently and slowly into the hall.

None of the anchors expected such a situation. They all showed horrified expressions, reflexively backing away, avoiding these uninvited guests like the plague.

What are these things?

They knew that whatever came, they were definitely not humans!!!

“Ugh!” A suppressed groan came from Blond’s throat. Covering his eyes, not knowing what he saw, he curled up like a shrimp.

As a psychic, Ma Qi turned pale. She stared tightly at those figures, looking like a frightened bird.

And Wen Jianyan felt his hair stand on end.

This is bad.

Although he didn’t know what kind of agreement the auction and the “buyers” had reached, these “guests” boarding now were obviously related to it. Worse still… the sucker who spent twenty billion to buy him might be among them.

Although Wen Jianyan was accustomed to offending various ghosts and anchors, in an SS-rank instance, making enemies with existences that could potentially rival the auction—the terror of it was self-evident.

Melodious music echoed in the empty hall. Bright lights, luxurious food, mellow wine—it should have been a wonderful scene, but at this moment, the entire hall was enveloped in gloom and fear. The living and the black shadows formed two distinct lines. The anchors were pale, fearing what might happen next.

However, as if not sensing people’s fear, those black shadows didn’t stop their pace, approaching the living step by step.

Wen Jianyan saw one of the figures walking straight towards him.

“?!”

Alarm bells rang in Wen Jianyan’s heart. his whole body tensed up. Even without turning his head, he could feel that the other teammates around him were just as tense, serious, and ready to strike as he was.

They stood still, observing quietly, waiting for the opportunity to act.

Until the figure stopped and slowly extended a hand towards Wen Jianyan.

Is this… an invitation to dance?

Wen Jianyan glanced into the distance. Sure enough, other black shadows were also looking for “dance partners.”

Whether out of fear or truly having a backup plan to not fear danger, the anchors who were approached shook their heads pale-faced to refuse. However, unexpectedly, those black shadows did not pester them and turned to the next anchor instead.

A certain death situation? Probably not.

Wen Jianyan’s brain worked rapidly.

In that case, then…

Suddenly, the shadow in front of him took a step forward. The abruptly shortened distance made Wen Jianyan’s heart jump. His muscles tensed up almost immediately, and he subconsciously wanted to retreat. But just at that approaching moment, in a flash of lightning, he suddenly saw clearly—under the black mask on the other’s face, a pair of light golden eyes flashed by.

“Shh.”

Under the stunned gazes of the few people behind him, Wen Jianyan placed his hand on it.

“Wait a minute, Guild Leader…”

Chen Mo spoke hurriedly.

But Wen Jianyan turned his head, gave them a “don’t worry” look, and was then pulled away from the spot by the black shadow.

Leaving the group looking at each other in dismay.

The lights overhead were bright, below was the smooth floor, and soft music flowed in the air. The tall man stood in front of him, easily enveloping him in his shadow.

“…You’re okay?”

Wen Jianyan lowered his voice and asked.

When they were on the negative eighteenth floor before, if Wu Zhu hadn’t restricted the movements of those “residents,” he wouldn’t have been able to escape from that floor so easily.

And after that, there was no news from Wu Zhu.

He had to admit, the moment he confirmed the other’s identity, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Wu Zhu paused, looked at him steadily, the golden eyes under the mask shining with a strange brilliance.

“En.”

He responded with the same volume.

Then, taking the opportunity of a spin, he lowered his head and rubbed against Wen Jianyan’s cheek.

“Why did you appear in this state?”

Wen Jianyan didn’t notice the other’s small action and asked.

“Otherwise, I can’t leave there,” Wu Zhu’s answer was concise as usual.

This also answered why he hadn’t appeared before.

Although he helped Wen Jianyan escape temporarily, he couldn’t leave the negative eighteenth floor.

Wen Jianyan still had many questions to ask, such as what exactly these shadows were, why they appeared here, and what they hoped to obtain. He needed to get more information related to them. However, before he could ask, he heard Wu Zhu continue:

“You can rest assured for now; they won’t kill anyone here.”

Wen Jianyan couldn’t help but look at Wu Zhu a few more times: “Oh.”

Knowing that these shadows were temporarily harmless, the nerves Wen Jianyan had kept tense since just now finally relaxed a little.

The music was melodious, and their feet stepped to the dance.

One two three four, one two three four.

The partner in front of him coordinated perfectly with his movements, holding him naturally as they spun, not missing a single step.

“How do you know how to dance?” Wen Jianyan looked at Wu Zhu suspiciously.

“You taught me.”

Wu Zhu answered.

…Huh? When?

Wen Jianyan was stunned at first, then quickly realized.

Right, it was at Yuying Comprehensive University, the final dance class assessment. One of the puppet dancers seemed to be controlled by Wu Zhu.

And Wu Zhu had always been a good student.

Wu Zhu continued, “You don’t remember? After that, you even danced…”

Wen Jianyan: “Alright, shut up.”

Soon, as time passed, other anchors also gradually realized that although these black shadows had a chilly aura and no visible faces, they seemed indeed temporarily harmless. After confirming their lives were safe, the atmosphere that had been stagnant finally eased gradually. Regardless of the purpose, this ball seemed to finally get on track.

After a dance ended, Wen Jianyan let go of Wu Zhu: “Wait.”

He turned and walked towards his teammates, preparing to exchange the information he just learned with them.

However, Wen Jianyan had just taken two steps when he stopped immediately.

He stood in place, turned his head to look at Wu Zhu, brows tightly furrowed, seeming to hesitate about something.

Wu Zhu: “?”

Wen Jianyan looked at Chen Mo and the others not far away, then at Wu Zhu behind him. He took a deep breath, seemingly making a decision:

“Never mind, come with me.”

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